Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/336

 The banking office was closed when they reached it. "We arrive too late," Hyacinthe said; and he read a note upon the door. "You cannot have your letters to-morrow either. It is a holiday. I am sorry."

They walked back to the hotel through a street of bazaars, where they were invited by brilliantly gowned merchants to drink coffee; and Hyacinthe declined these invitations with a politeness somewhat indifferent; but he showed more animation in dealing with street pedlars and beggars. Wicked-eyed brown youths in dirty white burnouses kept at Ogle's elbows offering him daggers ground from old files and sheathed in red leather;—"Fi' franc! S'ree franc! Aw franc!" they insisted, holding the barbaric little weapons almost upon his face. "You buy, gentiman! Aw franc!" Two stalwart Arabs, dragging a piteous blind man between them, walked backward before him, whining ardently for alms, making it difficult for him to move without stepping upon their bare feet; and child beggars, in rags constructed apparently of matted dust, clung to his coat, wailing loudly, "Good morny, Mister Lady! Good morny, Mister Lady! Panny! Panny! Geev panny!" Other beggars and pedlars, with draperies flapping on the