ANECDOTE OF MIRZA SHEFFY. 
315 
otherwise inconsiderable individual, who had long attended Mirza 
Sheffy’s levees, without having received the slightest notice ; but 
chancing one day to find the minister alone for a few moments, 
he seized the opportunity, and thus addressed him : 
“ I have had the honour of placing myself, for these many 
months back, in your Excellency’s sight, in the midst of your 
crowded halls, and yet have never had the happiness of receiving 
a single glance. But if your Excellency would condescend, in 
the next assembly of your visitors, to rise a little , on my entrance, 
such a distinction would be the height of my ambition ; I should 
thenceforth be held of consecjuence in the eyes of the khans. 
And for this honour, I would give your Excellency a consider¬ 
ation of one hundred tom aims.” 
It was an argument his Excellency liked so well, he closed 
with the proposal, and the time for the solemn investing-dignity 
was arranged for the next day. The happy man took care not 
to make his appearance till the divan of the minister was pretty 
well filled. He then presented himself on the most conspicuous 
part of the carpet, big with ideas of the ever-growing honours, 
of which that moment was to make him master. He looked 
proudly round on the rest of the khans, while Mirza Sheffy, 
half-raising himself from his seat, by his knuckles, and fixing his 
eyes gravely on him, to the no small astonishment of the rest of 
the company, exclaimed, “ Is that enough?” The man was so 
overcome with confusion, he hurried from the room ; leaving 
his distinction and his money alike with the minister ; but taking 
with him the useful lesson, that bought honours are generally paid 
with disgrace. The laugh for once went, without doubt of sin¬ 
cerity, with the great man ; and his smiles became of still higher 
value, since it had been proved that he set them above price. 
s s 2 * 
