The Jew Part 34

"Alas! I do not know Hebrew."

"There are translations in many languages."

"Really? Could you not secretly lend me one or two? I would be very grateful to you; but it must remain a secret between us."

This was a skilful move. Mystery brought them together. Emusia quietly put her little hand into Jacob's, and pressed it warmly as if to thank him. This grasp produced on the young man the effect of an electric current. He felt uneasy, troubled, and confused, as if he had committed a sin.

"I will send you some volumes," murmured he.

"That is not all," said she sweetly, still keeping her hand in his.

"Guide me in the study for which I thirst. I have hours of liberty; mamma goes out often, and I am at home alone. I depend on you to be my master, my instructor, in the first principles of the faith of our ancestors. This may appear a little odd on my part, but you will excuse my ardent desire for light."

"I fear"--

"No scruples, monsieur! If I have appeared impressed by you, I a.s.sure you it was only because I wish to learn from you something of Judaism."

A slight feeling of suspicion entered Jacob's mind, but he thrust it away from him with contempt. He would not admit that acting could be carried so far. He believed that Muse was sincere, and he arose to go with a much better opinion of her than when he came. She seemed to him more beautiful than before, and with something poetical about her. He sought already in his imagination for the biblical type to which this strayed lamb of the fold of Israel belonged. He felt no sympathy for her yet, but his curiosity was awakened and his repugnance had disappeared.

Emusia was radiant, and in her triumph said to herself:--

"I have hit Achilles in the heel."

CHAPTER XIII.

AKIBA.

Jacob, admonished by Mann, bantered by Henri, lectured by his former guardian, and opposed by Bartold, had, nevertheless, commenced his apostles.h.i.+p. He essayed to group around him the youth of Israel, for the old men were against all reform.

The most polished and the best educated did not like to recall their origin, nor to hear of the religion of their fathers. This was grievous. The disciples did not appear; all minds were absorbed in the revolutionary movement. Jacob's activity became more and more circ.u.mscribed. His co-religionists avoided him; but in spite of this abandonment, in spite of his isolation, he still clung to his ideas. He hoped to convince by his example, and to gain followers when calm should succeed the present political agitation and society regain its normal condition.

He was sadly afflicted to see the irreligion of the youth of Israel, irreligion much more widespread than he had at first supposed. In the desert around him any mark of sympathy would naturally move him, touch him, and console him, and Muse profited by these circ.u.mstances.

She put herself in possession of Jacob's ideas, procured the books recommended, and reading the ones he lent her, learned some things, guessed more, and thus armed, went forth to combat with fair chances of victory. Madame Wtorkowska had adroitly seized the opportunity of drawing nearer him whom she already called, to herself, her son-in-law.

She took possession of the first story of a house of which the Jew occupied the second. As there was nothing easier to ascertain than when the recluse was at home, they sent to his rooms under pretext of returning books or to ask the loan of new ones. Then they begged him to come down to them. They also met him often on the stairs.

Emusia became a fervent and intelligent disciple, and the apostle felt more and more flattered by this adhesion.

"Would you believe it," said she one evening to her mother, "the fool imagines that I am nearly ready to embrace Judaism, while in reality his Bible and his Talmud, with all their silly old legends and their stupid stories, weary me dreadfully."

"Do you believe that the idea of marriage has entered his head?"

"Bah! I will put it there when I wish."

"In that case you had better do it as soon as possible."

"I am awaiting a favourable opportunity. With this man it is not the senses, but the heart, on which we must count, and we must not be in haste. Be tranquil, I lie in wait for the moment."

"How do you watch for it? Flirting with Henri? G.o.d knows that if you were only safely married to Jacob I would not care how much you saw of Henri; but as you are not, I think these badinages are very ill-timed and take your mind off the princ.i.p.al business."

"I know what I am doing, mamma; the best tactics with Jacob are to proceed slowly. If we try to hasten matters we may lose all."

"Well, work it your own way."

This phrase always terminated the altercations between Muse and her mother.

The young girl's calculation was not dest.i.tute of judgment. Jacob did not love her, but he was becoming accustomed to her. As for the thought of marriage, it had never entered his head. His heart was filled with Mathilde, this fading flower that charmed him more each day. One thing only drew him to Emusia; it was the fervour that she manifested for the Bible and the Hebrew traditions, nothing more.

The mother did not altogether approve her daughter's plans, and shrugged her shoulders, saying:--

"If he escapes we are lost."

"Oh, no! It is not my Waterloo. I have not staked all on him. I have still the stage," said she laughing; and she continued to simulate an ardent admiration for the Jew and his doctrines, while at the bottom she detested them all. With Henri, on the contrary, full of familiarity and enjoyment, she was in her element.

The better to insinuate herself in Jacob's good graces, she flattered his mania by suggesting to him the thought of giving lectures on Judaism. He fell into the trap with enthusiasm, in spite of the obstacles which he knew he would encounter. His friends, under one pretext or another, refused to give their houses for this edifying purpose. At last Bartold, against his will, but for friends.h.i.+p's sake, put his at the Jew's disposition.

Israelites alone were invited. The only exceptions were Madame Wtorkowska and her daughter, as was very natural. Many Jews, for fear of being accused of superst.i.tion and ridicule, excused themselves at the last moment, feigning indisposition.

The room was large and commodious. It had no Jewish features, for the master of the house lived in European style, although without luxury.

Ostentation was nowhere to be seen in the dwelling of this descendant of Levi, who, with all his boasting of his biblical n.o.bility, was really an honest and a modest man and a good Polish citizen.

That evening Madame Bartold had put her children to bed at an early hour. She was dressed in good taste, and took great care that nothing should be wanting in any direction.

The ladies were in the minority,--Madame Wtorkowska, Emusia, Mathilde, and two others. Among the men were missing Mann and Mathilde's father, who thought all this Hebrew nonsense the issue of a diseased imagination. Kruder was there, for he desired admittance to all reunions. Ivas also, and Wilk, who sought everywhere converts to the revolutionary cause. Henri had come, ostensibly to escort his wife, but really to converse freely with Muse. He often visited her; but her mother was always present, and she frequently took advantage of his attentions to her daughter to borrow money of the gallant visitor, whose pa.s.sion disposed him to pecuniary sacrifices.

At nine o'clock the room was full. Madame Bartold, crimson with fatigue, and redder still with timidity, sought to give every one a seat.

On a table loaded with books was a carafe of water, a gla.s.s, and some sugar. All awaited the lecturer.

They commenced by serving tea to the company; then Jacob appeared. A solemn silence indicated that his audience was prepared to listen attentively. Not being accustomed to speaking in public, he looked around him, and commenced in a weak and hesitating voice, which gradually grew stronger.

"Ladies and Gentlemen: It is not without apprehension that as a Jew I present myself before Jews, many of whom blush for their origin; before Jews who know the history of France and England better than their own history; before Jews who know more of Sanscrit literature than of the Bible. From all sides we have been reproached for our spirit of retirement and of separation. We have been constrained to it, and the fault was not with us. How much more justly could men to-day make the merited reproach of our having ceased to be ourselves, and of losing our own ident.i.ty without identifying ourselves with others. We are here in continual antagonism with the country we inhabit, to which many ties should unite us. It appears that even that does not suffice us, and we have divorced ourselves from our own past.

"It is this past, with its poetry, that I would recall to you; for the time has come to appreciate it, and I wish to show you some of its characteristic beauties.

"Without culling here and there detached fragments of this treasure, I prefer to relate to you the entire life of a man who holds a place in sacred and legendary history. My hero is the celebrated Akiba.

"Akiba was so poor in his youth that he served as a shepherd for the wealthy Kalba Chaboua. He became enamoured of his master's daughter, and this love was the source of his wisdom. The young girl responded to the tender sentiment, but she made it the spur of an intelligence of which she had divined the value and the extent.

"'If you wish me to marry you,' said she, 'you must promise to devote your life to science.'

"Akiba promised, and they were married clandestinely. Kalba Chaboua discovered the secret, disowned his daughter, and drove them from his house. They wandered a long time without shelter, sleeping at night under the open sky. For a bed they had only a small bundle of straw, and tradition relates that one morning the beautiful black hair of the young woman was full of straws. Akiba drew them out gently, and lamented their hard fate.

"'Dearest,' said he tenderly, 'if I could I would give thee rich garments, and I would hang on thy neck a golden Jerusalem,'--an ornament which represented the city of Jerusalem, and which was much worn among the Jewish women.

"As he said the words he was accosted by a beggar clothed in rags.