It tickled Marco to the marrow to hear about such
an odd character; but it also prepared him for accidents;
and in my experience when you travel with a king who
is letting on to be something else and can’t
remember it more than about half the time, you can’t
take too many precautions.
This was the best store we had come across yet; it
had everything in it, in small quantities, from anvils
and drygoods all the way down to fish and pinchbeck
jewelry. I concluded I would bunch my whole
invoice right here, and not go pricing around any more.
So I got rid of Marco, by sending him off to invite
the mason and the wheelwright, which left the field
free to me. For I never care to do a thing in
a quiet way; it’s got to be theatrical or I don’t
take any interest in it. I showed up money enough,
in a careless way, to corral the shopkeeper’s
respect, and then I wrote down a list of the things
I wanted, and handed it to him to see if he could
read it. He could, and was proud to show that
he could. He said he had been educated by a priest,
and could both read and write. He ran it through,
and remarked with satisfaction that it was a pretty
heavy bill. Well, and so it was, for a little
concern like that. I was not only providing a
swell dinner, but some odds and ends of extras.
I ordered that the things be carted out and delivered
at the dwelling of Marco, the son of Marco, by Saturday
evening, and send me the bill at dinner-time Sunday.
He said I could depend upon his promptness and exactitude,
it was the rule of the house. He also observed
that he would throw in a couple of miller-guns for
the Marcos gratis—that everybody was using
them now. He had a mighty opinion of that clever
device. I said:
“And please fill them up to the middle mark,
too; and add that to the bill.”
He would, with pleasure. He filled them, and
I took them with me. I couldn’t venture
to tell him that the miller-gun was a little invention
of my own, and that I had officially ordered that
every shopkeeper in the kingdom keep them on hand and
sell them at government price—which was
the merest trifle, and the shopkeeper got that, not
the government. We furnished them for nothing.
The king had hardly missed us when we got back at
nightfall. He had early dropped again into his
dream of a grand invasion of Gaul with the whole strength
of his kingdom at his back, and the afternoon had
slipped away without his ever coming to himself again.
