Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 098.djvu/342

330 A gloomy silence then followed at table, and Isaac cast a reproachful look at his wife, which she did not omit to notice. The old man made a movement as if he were about to rise, but at that moment his eye fell on Benjamina; he remained silent and reseated himself. What Benjamina read, however, in her grandfather's countenance, drew unbidden tears to her beautiful eyes—tears which she quickly brushed away, while in her embarrassment she, unwittingly, broke up her bread into small crumbs on the tablecloth. For this act of extravagance she received a sharp reprimand from her aunt, with a rude reminder that these were not times to waste bread, and that "those who had nothing of their own should think themselves lucky to get anything to put in their mouths."

"Wife!" whispered Isaac to his better half, as they rose from table, "that was not according to our agreement."

When old Philip Moses was alone with his son afterwards, he looked long and earnestly at him, and then said, in a dejected tone of voice:

"My son, speak out the truth freely—the grey-haired, antiquated Jew, is an unbidden guest; you are ashamed to close your doors against him, but not to give him wormwood in his cup of welcome; and my poor Benjamina is looked on as a mendicant here, to whom you have not many crumbs of bread to spare."

"How so—my father?" stammered Isaac. "If my wife—forgave her!—I myself remarked a degree of thoughtlessness in her, which pained me."

"Isaac—Isaac!" exclaimed the old man, "why does your voice tremble, and why do your eyes avoid mine? But I will still call you my son, and will tarry awhile to see if you can free yourself. Your heart is not bad, Isaac; but, alas! it has been with you, as with the sons of Israel, who, captivated by the daughters of a strange people, forgot father and mother, and that Lord who brought them out of Egypt—they never beheld the promised land."

"Let not my marriage offend you so much, my dear father," said Isaac, gathering courage to speak out, "and be not shocked at my way of living. Remember, I came into the world half a century later than you did. Opinions alter with time and with circumstances, and I have learned to see much in our religion, and our position as regards the rest of the world, in a very different light to what you do. I should indeed be blind, if I did not perceive that our people are the most remarkable on the face of the earth, and the least subject to change, even in their ruin, and their dispersion among all the nations in the world. But I do not think that we are, therefore, called upon eternally to separate ourselves from all other living beings. Inwardly we may, indeed, feel our distinction from them; and let this secret knowledge strengthen us to support our humiliations, and teach us to rise superior to our oppressors and persecutors, even when we are condemned to crawl in the dust before them; inwardly we may despise them, but outwardly we must amalgamate with the great masses of mankind, who will otherwise crush us in our stubbornness."

"If I understand you aright, my son, you mean that we may continue to be Israelites, while we accept Christian customs and fashions and that our race might be preserved, notwithstanding that we put an end to it ourselves by mingling our blood with that of the stranger."