transformation into a carpet seller

When Mr Gurdjieff came into the dining-room, I was still so shocked that I couldn’t face him directly.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ he asked.
I cannot even look at you,’ I said.
‘Why not?’
I didn’t recognize you when I looked through the door.’
 ‘What do you wish?’ he asked. ‘That I speak philosophy with him as I do with the doctor? Would he then buy a carpet? And if I would speak with Dr Stjernvall as I spoke with this man, he would never follow me. So you must understand that I am with each one such as they need from me. Right now I wish to sell carpets, so I have to be a carpet seller and not a philosopher.’

Our life with Mr.Gurdjieff p.145 (reported by Olga de Hartmann)