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284. DAYS IN THE SUN
“My God, five dollars, is such a sum even worth
talking about? Can you consider such sums at all,
traveling about as much as you do? And you could
wait until to-morrow morning. Your tickets will be
good until then. Then you will have time enough to
catch your breath; and we can devote all our attention
to your shoe. And you will save the five dollars,
which, after all, is a matter not to be despised. You
don’t want to miss the carnival? Bah, the carnival
of Madrid doesn’t look like thirty cents! If you must
see a carnival, why don’t you stay and see the Granada
carnival the day after to-morrow?”
I preferred, however, to have my shoe delivered to
me, and this was finally done after I had paid a small
fine of one franc for having violated obligations previ-
ously assumed by me. A policeman, who was called to
adjust the dispute, confirmed the fact that the fine was
in order, to assure the proper conduct of business inter-
course. And the man, no doubt, earned his franc. In
one-half the time taken for his prattling, he might have
mended the shoe, and he might furthermore have
spared himself all these fabrications. But he preferred
to hand out the shoe. And I am sure that, had he been
the Omnipotent himself, he would undoubtedly have
set in motion a bridge disaster, a pestilence in Madrid,
an insurrection in Andalusia, and other harassing in-
cidents of the same type, in order to compel me to re-
main until the shoe was mended. Whatever might
have been required from him, he would have done it to
favor me, just in order to mend my shoe; how dare
we call such people lazy!
We reached the country coach just at the last mo-
ment, and it rolled upward with us through the narrow
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