“The rich young man was deeply touched by my story, every word of which, I am glad to say, he seemed to believe; for I was not deceived in my reading of character and I had rightly guessed that a man under thirty, honest-faced and clearly enjoying leisure and wealth would be singularly open to the reception of any romantic tale that might be offered to him.
“ ‘It is indeed fortunate,’ he answered, ‘that you understand plantations. It is a matter in which I am for the moment interested. I have an orchard which is not doing well.’ He had evidently forgotten his first sentence on our meeting which had given me my clue. But rich and generous natures are like that in early youth: hence, also, are they bad players in games of skill.
“ ‘Come with me,’ he continued, ‘and pass the night in my house yonder’ (it already lay before us in the hollow); ‘the conversation on your past life, which is doubtless full of adventures, will entertain me at my meal. Tomorrow I will see that you have occupation upon my farm, and after a short experiment I think we shall get along very well indeed together, particularly as I have recently planted by way of experiment a number of pear trees which—as I think I just told you—are not doing well. I thought myself able from my general knowledge to conduct this orchard, but I regret to say that some of the trees have died, and that the rest are in a poor way. I evidently lack the special experience required. Since plantations are your special line you may be of the greatest service to me in this little matter.’
“Here, my dear nephews, I was in something of a quandary. This, I am told, is a difficulty we men of affairs come across often enough in the conduct of our negotiations. It is our duty, as I need hardly tell you, to add details of a corroborative kind to the statements we have to make in affairs. To omit any detail is to court suspicion. On the other hand, one never knows where the most necessary fictions may lead one. Here I was confronted by the task of bringing to fruition an orchard … an orchard of pears … and I knew nothing whatever of orchards and of pears far less.
“I replied, therefore, with the greatest enthusiasm that the opportunity was exactly what I should have desired. Orchards were the one kind of plantation I had most carefully studied, and of all fruits pears were those upon which I had specialised most. Once I had seen the kind of tree my kind host had planted I should certainly be able to tell him what was the matter.
“It was almost dark when we came to his enclosure, but so eager was he on his new idea that he led me at once to the back of the house where the trees were planted. Very sickly indeed did their gaunt twigs look in the gloaming. A good third of them were shrivelled and dead, the rest drooped in various degrees, one only gave a promise of fruit out of some three hundred stems. The rich man surveyed the ruin and gazed at me anxiously while I held my chin in my hand as though meditating upon the best course for him to pursue, but in reality considering my own.
“Then it was, my dear infants, that I received from on High one of those illuminations which have always been, with me, the forerunners of great things. I deliberately kept the rich young man waiting for the space of a long prayer and then said suddenly and with determination, ‘Scrap the lot! … Excuse me,’ I added, ‘I have used a phrase current in the barbaric cities of the north, which is somewhat corrupt in speech. My intention was to express to Your Highness my conviction, formed upon this rapid survey in gathering darkness, that the orchard can no longer be saved, for I am sure my judgment will be confirmed when I make a more thorough examination tomorrow morning in broad day. I see also, even in this light, that the type of tree you have planted is wholly unsuited to the climate. May I be so bold as to ask where you purchased the stock?’
“ ‘I was assured,’ answered my new friend a little shamefacedly, ‘that it was stock grown within this very region and peculiarly adapted for our dry climate: for the drought of our position which, as you know, stands too high for waterways.’
“I shook my head. ‘You were deceived,’ said I. ‘Who sold you this unsuitable stock?’
“He told me that it was a sound friend of his who had gone off for a while upon a journey, that he was quite sure he had not intended to deceive. ‘Perhaps there was some error in the consignment shipped to you,’ I answered cheerfully as we turned towards the house. ‘This kind does admirably in the River Lowlands, and I take it your friend’s servants by some mistake sent your consignment to some lowland client and his to you in these uplands. Anyhow, the orchard is manifestly doomed, as you can see, and for my part I make no doubt that the trouble has come from the use of a wrong species. Now what you want here,’ I continued rapidly, turning over my chances well in my mind, and plumping for technical terms, ‘is a pear neither palinate nor sublongate, nor, for that matter perforate, but daxullic, or, as we sometimes call it in the trade “retarded”—at any rate in the second and third stirp.’
“ ‘I see; I understand; I apprehend,’ said the rich young man. For thus, have I discovered, do rich young men carry on a conversation which leaves them entirely at sea.
“ ‘I do not,’ I hastened to add, ‘insist, of course, upon the Persian stock, though that is the best. It might be difficult to procure and
