"What a
wonderful individual I am seated by," thought he, "to whom Arabic
seems a vulgar speech, and a question about the Hegira not worthy
of an answer!" not reflecting that as lions come from the Sahara,
they have quite enough of Arabic at home, and that the question
about the Hegira was rather mal a propos to one used to prey on the
flesh of hadjis. "Now I only wish he would vouchsafe me a little
of his learning," thought the boy to himself, and in this wish he
was at last gratified; for the Lion, after asking him whether he
was acquainted at all with the Sclavonian languages, and being
informed that he was not, absolutely dumb-foundered him by a
display of Sclavonian erudition.
Years rolled by--the writer was a good deal about, sometimes in
London, sometimes in the country, sometimes abroad; in London he
occasionally met the man of the spectacles, who was always very
civil to him, and, indeed, cultivated his acquaintance. The writer
thought it rather odd that, after he himself had become acquainted
with the Sclavonian languages and literature, the man of the
spectacles talked little or nothing about them. In a little time,
however, the matter ceased to cause him the slightest surprise, for
he had discovered a key to the mystery. In the mean time the man
of spectacles was busy enough; he speculated in commerce, failed,
and paid his creditors twenty pennies in the pound; published
translations, of which the public at length became heartily tired;
having, indeed, got an inkling of the manner in which those
translations were got up.
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