I affected not to notice this remark, but asked:
“When will your father be back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you give me no idea?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll come again,” I said, and I made a movement as if about to go.
“Stay!” he cried.
“If you want a good market, it is here; and I’ll deal fairly with you, if you have stuff that is worth attention.”
“Oh, of that there is no doubt. But I’ll come again when your father is in.”
This reiteration irritated him, and he said in the snarling way I had already noticed:
“You are a fool, and if you won’t trade with me, you shan’t trade with my father.”
“Well, that may be so,” I said with indifference, “but I’ll try him, anyway.”
“Then you’ll have to wait a pretty long time.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s not in the country.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s in Morocco,”
