The million pound banknote

I lost not a moment, but shoved note and money into my vest pocket, and ran for the nearest cheap eating house. Well, how I did eat! When at last I couldn't hold any more, I took out my money and unfolded it, took one glimpse and nearly fainted. A million pounds. That was five million dollars! Why, it made my head swim.

I must have sat there stunned and blinking at the note as much as a minute before I came rightly to myself again. The first thing I noticed, then, was the landlord. His eye was on the note, and he was petrified. He was worshipping, with all his body and soul, but he looked as if he couldn't stir hand or foot. I took my cue in a moment, and did the only rational thing there was to do. I reached the note towards him, and said, carelessly 'Give me the change, please.'

Then he was restored to his normal condition, and made a thousand apologies for not being able to break the bill, and I couldn't get him to touch it. He wanted to look at it, and keep on looking at it; he couldn't seem to get enough of it to quench the thirst of his eye, but he shrank from touching it as if it had been something too sacred for poor common clay to handle. I said 'I am sorry if it is an inconvenience, but I must insist. Please change it; I haven't anything else.'

Vocabulary:

Made ... head swim: To cause confusion or giddiness
Came ... to myself: To remember where or who one is
Stir: Move
Cue: Signal telling one how to act, or to start acting
Break the bill: Turn a banknote into change
Common clay: Normal human flesh