The Jew Part 30

"You could not have come to us," cried he, "in a more opportune moment.

You come to advise with us, do you not?"

With Bartold and Kruder there was a young Pole belonging to the most advanced party of patriotic enthusiasm.

Kruder took his hat to go, but Jacob detained him.

"Pardon, monsieur," said he; "will you wait a moment? I have come to seek you here, I have something to tell you."

"If it is not a personal affair you can speak freely before these gentlemen. We are all friends here."

"Do you know Ivas?" asked the Jew abruptly.

"I know him well. He was with me at the university at Kief. What has become of him? Have you met him anywhere?"

"Yes, in Italy. I brought him with me to the Polish frontier."

"And where is he at present?"

"In a hiding-place that I found for him, but he insists on coming to Warsaw. I fear that would be dangerous for him. They are seeking him, and his description is known."

"I do not agree with you. He had few acquaintances, and after some years of absence he must have changed enough not to be recognized. We could easily find an asylum for him here where he could escape the police. It would be prudent, however, for him to secure a communal pa.s.sport."

"May he soon join us," said the young man of the extreme party. "He will be very useful to our cause. We will undertake to conceal him. I have often heard of him; he belongs to the Lithuanian provinces.

Nothing could be better. We will send him there to make converts to our cause. What can we do to bring him here?"

"And," asked Kruder, looking at Jacob, "what are Ivas' feelings? You see that here we are all fire, all flame."

"I fear he has too much fire," said Jacob. "Deleterious fire, alas!

This flame is, to my mind, the flame of despair. It will drive men to unreasonable acts."

"Behold a cautious man!" cried the young Pole, paling with wrath; "the sentiments of your race can be expressed in two words,--self-interest and logic. We Poles, on the contrary, are led by what you call folly.

Is heroism folly? Then it will be by folly that we shall triumph."

"I am not," replied Jacob, "an exclusive partisan of cold reason. Logic leads one astray at times. In a question of life or death for the country's salvation we should not depend entirely on cold reasoning, nor wholly on enthusiasm. Reasoners and enthusiasts are equally at fault, are both on the wrong path."

"Would you, then, have a mixture of folly and reason?"

"Precisely. And I wish it for the common good. In it you will find the veritable national instinct."

"No, no! Popular opinion aspires to a revolution which will accomplish our deliverance."

"The revolutionary agitation is only at the surface," said Jacob. "In the bottom of all hearts there are forebodings of the evils which may arise from a premature explosion."

"If such are your opinions, I present you my compliments, and I salute you."

"Wilk," interrupted Kruder, "do not allow yourself to become so angry."

"Why does he irritate me, then?" replied the young enthusiast, a little appeased.

"However, I withdraw my brusque adieu and will remain."

"Be seated, gentlemen," said Bartold. "We are going to serve tea, and you, Kruder, you must not go yet."

"I am expected at ten meetings."

"You can shirk five of them."

"I cannot, however, miss my interview with Count A. Z., nor the meeting of the Agricultural Society, nor the University debate, nor the a.s.sociation for Popular Publications, nor"--

"You are verily a much-sought-for man, but, if I were you, I would throw from my shoulders a good half of these burdens; childish bl.u.s.ter, rhetorical compet.i.tions, a war of words of patriotic agitation, behold to what you are invited! You wish to direct everything and everybody; take care that you do not become a blunted tool in the end."

Kruder shook his head as if to say, "It will never be." But at heart he felt that in his friend's warning he had something to fear.

After a general conversation he left the room with Wilk, and they talked over the measures necessary to secure Ivas' safety.

Alone, Jacob and Bartold embraced warmly, for they loved each other like brothers, despite the rationalism of the one and the piety of the other.

They had an animated discussion on the situation of the Jews in Poland and throughout the world. Jacob, as was his custom, spoke at length on the apostleship he intended undertaking.

"You will lose your time and your efforts," said Bartold; "the era of religious convictions is pa.s.sed. We live in an age of reason, where it is useless to wish to resuscitate the beliefs of antiquity and of the Middle Ages. The structures which sheltered the wings of the cherubim have crumbled away and can never be raised."

Jacob listened attentively, but his convictions were not shaken. He was persuaded of the necessity of a reform in Judaism that should reestablish the authority of the Mosaic law.

CHAPTER XII.

A SIREN.

After some weeks of sojourn at Warsaw Jacob met in the street Luci Coloni, accompanied by Gromof, her Russian cavalier of the grotto at Sestri. He was hastening to salute them, when he perceived that the lady and her companion turned as if to avoid him. Why this mystery?

Jacob was puzzled, and paused on his way.

Ivas' affairs were soon arranged; it was no longer necessary to watch over him, and, freed from that anxiety, he dreamed of commencing his Judaic reform. He realized that he had two formidable obstacles to encounter,--on one side indifference, on the other, superst.i.tion. The superst.i.tious would regard him as an atheist, the indifferent, as a bigoted fanatic.

Discouraged for the moment, as almost all reformers have been, he sought to regain his former enthusiasm by reading the Bible and the Talmud. To this end he shut himself up for several days, and came out determined to make converts, not among the old, whose convictions were settled, but among the youth, who were still animated with n.o.ble instincts. These it was whose opinion he would strive to form. Weary with his long meditations he was going out to walk in the fresh air, when he was handed a note from Madame Wtorkowska, written on satin paper, the contents of which were as follows:--

We shall be very happy to see M. Jacob at our house this evening. There will be a few friends and a little music.

Benigna Wtorkowska.

Jacob was not in the humour to accept, but he reflected that it would be impolite to refuse, and that perhaps he might meet Mathilde there, so he accepted the invitation.

The little villa occupied by the Wtorkowskas was a masterpiece of that modern art which transforms real misery into lying luxury. Nothing had been paid for, from the servants' livery to the satin robe worn by the hostess, and the lace-covered velvet dress of the charming daughter.