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XII
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I Pass from Paris to London: "Malacoot"
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principal
in Paris was only six years older than I. At the time of which I write,
that is, he was twenty-eight. At the early age of sixteen he had
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been
pitchforked into Spain by a Spartan father with nothing more than a
letter of introduction to a friend's son who was in a small way of
business as a dealer in antiques, or pseudo-antiques, in Madrid.
The
young man had what is termed "his head screwed on the right way". In
other words, he started making money from the word "Go". He was taken
into the Madrid business and within a short time became a full partner.
One day he happened to attend a public sale of an Estremaduran
hidalgo's effects. An ancient chest took his fancy and he bid
successfully for it. When he got it home its extraordinarily heavy
weight made him look it over very carefully, with the result that he
found a number of secret drawers crammed with gold doubloons.
Being naturally of an aggressive nature, his early suc-
"5
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