noise before the gate of the house of an honorable citizen?”
“I am not a member of the committee of public safety, but of the junta of supplies, so I come in search of the Señor Candiola, and make him come down; but I will not enter this dark house full of cobwebs and mice.”
“The poor cannot live in palaces like Señor José de Montoria, administrator of the goods of the commune, and for a long time tax-collector,” replied Candiola.
“I made my fortune by work, not by usury,” exclaimed Montoria. “But let us make an end of this. Señor Don Jerónimo, I have come for that flour. These two good fathers have acquainted you with our need of it already.”
“Yes, I will sell it, I will sell it,” answered Candiola, with a crafty smile; “but I cannot part with it at the price which these señors indicated. It is too little. I do not part with it for less than one hundred and sixty-two reales for a sack of a hundred pounds.”