I have this morning taken a peek in one of my books in the 2000 Plus library I possess and read little in these days, called 'the Illustrated MarkTwain' and was smitten with his use of language. An amazing man, Samuel Clemens, nom-de-plume of 'Mark Twain' world traveller and - it seems - an unhappy, tormented soul.
The tale which drew my attention is called "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note" and deals with an ex-broker arriving from America in London, penniless and destitute only to become the subject of a bet between 2 rich brothers who observe him outside their living-room eyeing off a discarded pear and waiting for people to pass so he can pick it up unobserved - he was ravenously hungry.
They call him in and offer him a single bank note to the value of £1 million on loan for a month.
Here is a link to the story, which in the original is full of wonderful language and hints as to English foibles for betting, their 'almost' food-less dinner parties where people are seated and/or offered food by social standing etc. wonderful names for their aristocrats; - the bet was that one brother bet that after 1 month the subject would have been able to get anything he wanted simply by proffering the £1 million pound note - the other said no, he would fall foul of the law and be locked up. You can guess the end of the story,
and
I need to quote the first reaction of a salesman in a gent's outfitters when offered the note in payment:
"... he received it with a smile, one of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and wrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pond; and then in the act of his taking a glimpse of the bill this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads of lava which you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius. I never before saw a smile caught like that, and perpetuated. The man stood there holding the bill, and looking like that, and the proprietor hustled up to see what was the matter, and said briskly: 'Well, what's up? what's the trouble? what's wanting?" etc.etc.
Taurisk
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-brief-summary-1-000-000-pound-bank-note-44567
