Chapter 65: Results

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Results

I

Constantinople, Galata — 5 February 1917

Zeynep laid a plan of the final count upon the long table and asked Mazhar Bey and Samuel Aboab to read it.

"The three students have counted their own towns for three months, and I do not doubt them," she said. "But a count made by the man who did the work is a claim, and I wish the Ministry to receive a proof."

"What do you propose?" asked Mazhar Bey.

"That the students exchange towns in the last week of April, so that Yakup counts Kayseri, Rasim counts Bursa and Hamdi counts Konya." She turned the sheet toward him. "Each will test the same shops from the baseline list, and each will write what he finds."

Samuel Aboab studied the plan and shook his head slowly.

"It will cost the House sixty liras in journeys and lodging, Han?m," he said. "The Ministry has not asked for it."

"The Ministry has not asked for it, and for that reason it will believe it." Zeynep wrote the figure in the margin. "I would sooner spend sixty liras on a count that no one can doubt than save them and be doubted in May."

"The House will also pay for the lodging of the Ministry’s own inspector, if the Minister wishes to send one to watch the count," said Zeynep. "He may stand behind any student and read over his shoulder."

Mazhar Bey smiled and drew the plan toward him.

"I shall write the students tonight, and I shall tell them that each is to count as an enemy would," he said.

II

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 16 March 1917

The news that the English had entered Baghdad reached the city on a Monday, and the lane was silent by the evening prayer.

Cevdet came to the house when the lamps were lit and sat at the study table with his hat upon his knee.

"The Ministry is shaken, and a shaken ministry looks for savings," he said. "Hakk? Bey sent word to me that the Treasury has asked whether the pilot may be closed at the end of March."

Ayaan took a moment before he replied, and he spoke with care.

"The pilot was designed for six months, and a count made at five months is only a hope," he said. "I would rather the Ministry waited until the end of April and had a result that it could defend."

"Will Hakk? Bey wait?"

"He will wait if the House tells him that the cost of waiting is nothing, and that the final count will be made at no charge to the Treasury." Cevdet turned the hat once in his hands. "I think the Minister would sooner have the figures than the saving."

"Then the House will pay for the final count itself, and I shall write to Hakk? Bey tonight," said Zeynep. "I shall tell him that the Ministry may keep the saving and still have the figures."

Cevdet nodded and rose to go, and he paused at the door.

"The Baghdad news will pass in a month, Han?m, and the Treasury will remember that you did not ask it for anything," he said.

Ayaan thought of the railway that the Kaiser had come to bless nineteen years before, and he found that he could not speak of it.

III

Konya, the Guild Hall of the Coppersmiths — 24 April 1917

The hall was cool and smelled of hot metal, and two hundred and thirty-eight weights lay upon the long table in neat rows.

Hamdi stood at the head of the table with his spectacles pushed high upon his forehead, for he had counted Konya without the help of Yakup, who stood at the back with folded arms.

Ayaan had come by the Anatolian line with Mazhar Bey, and they sat beside the guild elders upon a low bench.

"Of two hundred and thirty-eight shops, two were found with false weights," said Hamdi. "In November, sixty-one were found false in two hundred and twelve."

"And the two?" asked Mazhar Bey.

"A tinsmith in the lower market, whose weight had been dented by a fall, and a grocer who has bought a new one this week and has the receipt." Hamdi laid down his sheet. "Both were fined, and both paid on the day."

Kamil Usta, who was seventy-one years old, rose from his place and took a stamped weight in his hand.

"My father used a stone, and I used a stone, and the stone was a liar for forty years," he said. "I did not know it, Efendi, and now I know, and I would not go back to the stone for a hundred liras."

The elders murmured their agreement, and an old tinsmith at the end of the bench asked whether the stamp might be shown to the boys of the Saturday school.

"It shall be shown to them, and Yakup will teach it," said Mazhar Bey.

Ayaan stood and bowed to the old man, and he did not trust his voice to speak.

IV

Kayseri, the Flour Market — 27 April 1917

Yakup tested thirty shops in the flour market before noon, and the new witness, a grave young miller named Cemil Efendi, followed him with the fine book.

The stipend of thirty kuru? a month was written in the guild’s ledger, and the first line of the witness’s own book carried the date of his oath.

"Of one hundred and ninety shops, seven were found false, against fifty-three in November," said Yakup in the evening. "The seven are in the village market beyond the city wall, which the witness does not yet visit."

"Why does he not visit it?" asked Ayaan.

"It is two hours’ walk, Efendi, and the stipend does not pay for a mule." Yakup lowered his voice. "I think the code has reached the city of Kayseri, and it has not yet reached its villages."

Ayaan took out the small notebook and wrote the line exactly.

"The Ministry should read that sentence, and not only the numbers," he said. "A pilot that finds its own limits is worth more than one that has none."

"Shall I write it in the report?"

"Write it in the first page, Yakup, in your own words, and sign it." Ayaan closed the notebook. "I will ask Hakk? Bey to read the village market aloud to the Minister."

V

Constantinople, Galata — 2 May 1917

Zeynep assembled the final tables upon the long table, and she read them to the partners in the order that she had written them.

The false weights had fallen from one hundred and sixty-two in the three towns to eleven, with Bursa at two of one hundred and eighty, and the silk guild had kept its old seal beside the new stamp.

Complaints brought to the witnesses had risen from nine in November to sixty-four in April, and she read that figure with the same voice as the others.

"A rise in complaints is a good sign, for a customer who holds a receipt may bring one," she said. "But I shall write it as I find it and let the Ministry decide."

"And the price of flour?" asked Agop Kalfayan, who had come to hear the results.

"It has risen thirty-one parts in a hundred in the three towns since October, and thirty-eight in four towns that were not in the pilot, as the Ministry’s own returns show." She laid the sheet before him. "The difference is seven parts, and I cannot swear that the code caused it."

Agop read the sheet and tapped it with a knuckle.

"I have seen reports that claimed ten times as much and proved a tenth of it," he said. "This one claims little and proves it, and I think it will be believed."

"It will be believed by those who read it, Agop Efendi, and I hope that the Chamber of Accounts is among them," said Zeynep.

"The receipts are kept by only four buyers in ten," said Zeynep. "I have written that in red."

"Then the Code has reached the shops, and it has not yet reached the households," said Ayaan. "The next plan must teach the buyers as well as the sellers."

"I shall put it at the head of the autumn proposal," said Zeynep.

VI

Constantinople, Sirkeci — 9 May 1917

R?za Bey of the Finance Inspectorate had been given the final report to check before it reached the Minister, and he read it in Hakk? Bey’s room with a ruler beside him.

When he had finished the last page, he set down the ruler and looked at Zeynep.

"I have found one error in the House’s own column of expenses, madame," he said. "The cost of the brass sets was entered at four hundred and twelve liras, and the invoices total four hundred and fifteen."

"Then the House has understated its expense by three liras," said Zeynep. "I shall correct it at once."

"It is the first time in my service that a report has erred against its author." R?za Bey permitted himself a small smile. "I shall note that the error was in the House’s disfavour."

Hakk? Bey, who had listened without a word, opened the grey folder at the first page.

"The Minister has read your sentence upon the village market of Kayseri, Ayaan Efendi, and he has asked me to say that he will write to the governor," he said. "He wishes also to propose that the Code be extended to all the provincial capitals, forty-one in number, in the autumn."

"The House will prepare a plan, and the guilds will read it before the Ministry does," said Ayaan.

"It shall be as you say." Hakk? Bey closed the folder. "Allah willing, the Treasury will not ask us to cut the count short again."

VII

Constantinople, Süleymaniye — 20 May 1917

Mustafa sat beside the fountain with Mehmet, who was nearly seven and had begun to count the pigeons in rows of five.

"You have a result, my son, and I am told that it is a modest one," said Mustafa. "I am glad, for a modest result is one that does not need to be defended."

"The Ministry wishes to extend it to forty-one towns," said Ayaan.

"Then they believe it, and I would ask you to remember why." The old man tossed a crumb to the nearest bird. "They believe it because the House counted against itself, and because the report said what failed as plainly as what held."

Mehmet looked up from the pigeons and announced that he had counted twenty-five.

"Count them again in a different order, and see whether the number changes," said Mustafa. "A number that holds when the order changes is a number that can be trusted."

The boy frowned, and he began again from the last pigeon at the edge of the fountain.

Ayaan watched him and thought of the weights of the Konya guild laid out in their rows.

"It is the same lesson, Baba," he said. "A count that two men make from different ends must agree."

"It is the oldest lesson in the bazaar," said Mustafa. "It is only new each time a man learns it for himself."

VIII

Constantinople, Galata — 31 May 1917

The report of the pilot was printed in four hundred copies by M?g?rdi? Efendi, and the first was delivered to the Financial Office in a grey wrapper.

Zeynep opened it at the long table and turned to the first page, where Yakup’s sentence upon the village market stood in his own words.

Beneath it, in a smaller type, the Ministry had printed the House’s expenses and the three liras of R?za Bey’s correction.

"It is the first report of the House that carries a mistake in its own print," she said. "I find that I am not ashamed of it."

"It is why the report will be read," said Ayaan.

Cevdet, who had come up the stair with the gazettes, turned the pages slowly and then closed the wrapper.

"The Ministry has sent a copy to the Chamber of Accounts and another to the Palace, and neither has yet asked for the House’s name to be removed," he said. "It is a good sign, and I think that you should treat it as one."

Zeynep took the small ledger of the Financial Office from the shelf and wrote beneath the entry of September.

The eighth quarter of the office: Pilot closed. False weights, one hundred and sixty-two to eleven. Report printed with its own error. Forty-one towns proposed.

She closed the ledger, and Ayaan took out the small notebook and wrote a line of his own.

A result that names its limits is a result that will be believed.