Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/49

 been opened. Besides, I must not conceal the fact that some of the articles, dealing with coffee, interested me, and that I should like to use them. I daily read some pages here and there, and I became more and more—Frits says “ever more,” but I don’t— and more, I say, convinced that a man must be a coffee-broker to know exactly what takes place in the world. I am convinced that the Rosemeyers, who are sugar people, have never set eyes on anything like it.

Now I was afraid that Shawlman might suddenly again appear in front of me, and that he might again have something to say to me. I began to regret that on the evening in question I had turned into Kapel-lane, and I realized that one should never leave the respectable road. He would, of course, have asked me for money, and spoken of his parcel. I might perhaps have given him something, and then, if next day he had sent me that whole pack of writing, it would have been my lawful property. I could then have separated the tares from the wheat, I should have retained the numbers that I wanted for my book, and burnt the remainder, or thrown it into the w.p.b., which now I could not do. For if he returned, I should have to give it up, and he, seeing that I was interested in one or two articles from his pen, would doubtless ask too much for them. Nothing gives the seller a greater advantage than the discovery that the buyer is in need of his wares. And a merchant who understands his profession will avoid this as much as possible.

Another idea has just occurred to me—although I have already mentioned it—which goes to prove how receptive the membership of the Exchange may leave one to human impressions. It is this. Bastians—this is the third clerk, who is getting so old and feeble—has of late scarcely been in the office twenty-five days out of thirty, and when he does turn up, he often does his work badly. As a man of probity I feel it my duty to the firm—Last & Co., as the Meyers are out of it—to see that everyone does his work, and I am not at liberty to throw away the firm’s money from a