Rusca's," said we, sitting down to the first tray which he gave us to look at, and seeing, from the character of the coins therein exhibited, that A---- had presumed we _might_ be. "We only buy from R---- when he is discreet, and does not overcharge; which, _entre nous_, he is very apt to do." The old man glanced at us approvingly, and trying hard to look honest, said, "Ya, ya; when he can get _ein_ piastre he will not take _ein halb_--but when I ask a piastre for any tings, (and he was grave again,) it is tantamount as to say, 'dis is de _leastest_ preis to give.'" "All here has a fixed price, has it?" "Ya, ya." "And what may this pretty little figure be worth?" "I shall confess dat is dear; two hundred piastres is de preis--Rusca would have said four hundred to begin mit." We admitted its beauty; but said two hundred spread out upon the table were also beautiful. "De good ting is de dear ting," said he, and we admitted the truth of the proposition, both in the abstract and in its application; took up a specious-looking coin, which he took as abruptly out of our hand--"_Nein gewiss nicht_," we must not buy that. "Why?" Because some people had not scrupled to tell him (though they knew better) that it was a Rusca. "Rusca!" said we, "and what does that mean?" "In Neapolitan _patois_," said he, "we call all our specious but doubtful wares Ruscas! But dis," continued he, taking up a companion to it--"dis I baptize in my own name, and offer for a true John A----." "Ah!" sighed we, but without _emphasis_, as if it had only _just_ occurred to us "how difficult, now-a-days, _not_ to be deceived;" and we replaced the J---- A---- in his box accordingly. "Ven all amateurs," said he, (following out his own thought, rather than replying to ours,) "ven all amateurs were connoisseurs likewise, we might say goot-night to dis bissnesse." In the days of our novitiate, when we used to say, and think we knew (as the phrase is) what would please us, and would buy according to our means, we found (as indeed all purchasers in these matters find) that time, while it brought with it a nicer appreciation in judging works of art, diminished also our opinion of what we had formerly purchased; and, to avoid fresh disappointments, we used to apply to an _antiquario_ to give us his advice _pro re nata_;--as the reader will see by the following note of Herr A----, which, as it prevented our making one or two foolish purchases, was not without its value, and we preserved it accordingly. It ran _verbatim_ thus-- "Sir,--You may copy my catalogue, but on Montag ber sur I must hav back. The _botel_ is not good in such a manner. The _figure_ is of no great value; it is not antic, and not fair; so is the _bust_ in stone not antic, and not nice; and every thing that is neither antic nor fair I cannot give any worth. Your obedient servant, "A----. "Pray you must not tell to any one my estimation of any thing."