Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/57

 mass of, it would have been my legal property. Then I should have separated the wheat from the chaff; I should have singled out what I wanted for my book, and should have burned, or thrown into the waste-basket, all the rest. This I could not do now; for if he returned, I should have to produce his property, and he, seeing that I was interested in a couple of treatises of his, would very soon have been induced to ask too high a price;—for nothing gives more ascendency to the seller than the discovery that the buyer stands in need of his wares. Such a position is therefore avoided as much as possible by a merchant who understands his business. I have another idea, previously mentioned, which may prove how a person who frequents the Exchange may yet be open to humane impressions;—it was this: Bastianus, that is the third clerk, who is becoming so old and stupid, has not of late been at the office more than twenty-five days out of the thirty; and when he does come, he often does his work very badly. As an honest man, I am obliged to consult the interests of the firm—Last and Co. since the Meyers have retired—to see that every one does his work; for I may not throw away out of mistaken pity, or excess of sensibility, the money of the firm. This is my principle. I would rather give that Bastianus three guilders out of my own pocket, than continue to pay him every year seven hundred guilders which he does not deserve.