It was clear, however, that this
new acquaintance, though I liked the manner of it, would be attended
with considerable inconvenience, for the Arab gentleman commenced an
address to me in French. It has always been to me a source of
sorrow that my parents did not teach me the French language, and
this deficiency on my part has given rise to an incredible amount of
supercilious overbearing pretension on the part of Judkins--who
after all can hardly do more than translate a correspondent's
letter. I do not believe that he could have understood that Arab's
oration, but at any rate I did not. He went on to the end, however,
speaking for some three or four minutes, and then again he bowed.
If I could only have learned that bow, I might still have been
greater than Judkins with all his French.
"I am very sorry," said I, "but I don't exactly follow the French
language when it is spoken."
"Ah! no French!" said the Arab in very broken English, "dat is one
sorrow." How is it that these fellows learn all languages under the
sun? I afterwards found that this man could talk Italian, and
Turkish, and Armenian fluently, and say a few words in German, as he
could also in English. I could not ask for my dinner in any other
language than English, if it were to save me from starvation. Then
he called to the Christian gentleman in the pantaloons, and, as far
as I could understand, made over to him the duty of interpreting
between us.
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