"Do not take that trouble. As soon as the book is published, it will
appear in Leipzig and I will read it. Adieu!"
After his departure, I re-read attentively what I had written. I found
some remarkable details, but nothing which contradicts what I had seen
and heard during my stay in Greece.
At the moment of finishing the manuscript, a scruple restrained me: What
if some errors had crept into Hermann's statements? In my quality of
editor was I not responsible? To publish the story of "The King of the
Mountains," was it not to expose myself to editorial comments and
criticisms?
In my perplexity, I thought of making a copy of the original. I sent the
first to M. Pseftis. I begged him to point out, candidly, all the
errors, and I promised to print his reply at the end of the volume.
I re-read the copy which I had retained. I changed no word in it. If I
made myself the corrector of the young German's statements, I would
become his collaborator. So I discreetly withdrew. It is Hermann who
speaks to you.
II.
PHOTINI.
You divine, from the appearance of my clothes, that I have not ten
thousand francs with me. My father is an inn-keeper whom the railroads
have ruined. In prosperous times he eats bread, in bad years potatoes.
Add to this, that there are six children, all with good appetites. The
day on which I received my commission from the Jardin des Plantes, there
was a festival given in the family. My departure would not only increase
the portion of each of my brothers, but I was to have two hundred and
fifty francs per month and the expenses for my journey. It was a
fortune. From that moment they ceased to call me Doctor. They dubbed me
beef-merchant, so that I should appear rich! My brothers prophesied that
I would be elected Professor by the University, on my return from
Athens. My father hoped that I would return married. In his position of
inn-keeper, he had assisted in some very romantic adventures. He cited,
at least three times a week, the marriage of the Princess Ypsoff and
Lieutenant Reynauld. The Princess occupied the finest apartments, with
her two maids and her Courier, and she gave twenty florins a day. The
French Lieutenant was in No. 17, way up under the eaves, and he paid a
florin and a half, food included; however, after a month's sojourn at
the hotel, he departed in a carriage with the Russian lady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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