میلیونر فقیر

chapter five

The Poor Millionaire

The impossible happened. I bought everything I wanted without money. I showed my banknote and asked for change, but every time the same thing happened. No one was able to change it.

I bought all that I needed and all the luxuries that I wanted. I stayed at an expensive hotel in Hanover Square. I always had dinner at the hotel. But I preferred having breakfast at Harris’s simple eating place. Harris’s was the first place where I had a good meal with my million-dollar note. That’s where it all started.

The news about me and my banknote was all over London.

Harris’s eating place became famous because I had breakfast there. Harris was happy with all his new customers.

I lived like a rich, important man. I had money to spend. I lived in a dream. But often, I said to myself, “Remember, this dream will end when the two men return to London. Everything will change.”

My story was in the newspapers. Everyone talked about the “strange millionaire with the million-dollar note in his pocket.” Punch magazine drew a funny picture of me on the front page. People talked about everything I did and about everything I said. They followed me in the streets.

I kept my old clothes, and sometimes I wore them. It was fun when the shop owners thought I was poor. Then I showed them the banknote, and, oh, how their faces changed!

After ten days in London, I went to visit the American Ambassador. He was very happy to meet me. He invited me to a dinner-party that evening. He told me that he knew my father from Yale University. He invited me to visit his home whenever I wanted.

I was glad to have a new, important friend. I thought to myself, ‘‘I’ll need an important friend, when the story of the million-dollar note and bet comes out.”

I want the reader to know that I planned to pay back all the shop owners who sold me things on credit. “If I win the bet for the old gentleman,” I thought, “I will have an important job. With an important job, I will have a big salary.” I planned to pay back everyone with my first year’s salary.