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When the Emîr, at taking leave, put two mejidis in Abdullah's hand, he bit his lip and cursed the old man's guile. Thenceforth he determined to keep all English-speaking persons at a distance, since their whole endeavour seemed to be to cheat his loved Emîr. But it was not so easy to discard his old acquaintance.
'I shall never see him in my life again most likely! I objected. 'Nay, that you cannot tell, replied my mentor suavely. 'To be acquainted with a person in authority is always well. 'Why did you want those four mejîdis? I inquired severely.
In the ante-room Suleymân drew close to my left ear and whispered sharply: 'Give me four mejîdis. 'Whatever for? I asked in deep amazement. 'That I will tell you afterwards. The need is instant.
But at this the Armenian shrieks violently. He scorns Turkish money and advises Italian lire. At the idea of lire the crowd howl. They hurl at you instead francs, piastres, paras, drachmas, lepta, metalliks, mejidis, centimes, and English shillings. The money-changer argues with them gravely. He does not send for the police to drive them away.
There, some half-hour later, when I had given orders for our horses to be ready for a start directly after luncheon a decision against which Suleymân protested unsuccessfully, declaring it would be too hot for riding I overheard him telling the whole story of our visit, including the donation of the four mejîdis, to Rashîd, who was lazily engaged in polishing my horse's withers.
Go away, therefore, for a reasonable time; let the noise of thy conversion die away; and all is said." So it was arranged. On the day when the Emîr set sail for England in the custody of his forbidding uncle, Iskender, with the sum of two mejîdis in his pouch, set out on foot for the Holy City.
I produced the four mejîdis from a trouser-pocket, and, receiving them, he went back to the door by which the usher stood, and whispered to the man, who went inside a moment and came back with the private secretary of the Caïmmacâm. The compliments which passed between them seemed to me interminable.
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