While he was disposing of it, she poked the fire into a big cheerful blaze, seating herself opposite him in a capacious arm-chair, where the flame picked her out in bright tints upon the dusky background of the great dim room.
"And how is _The Flag of Judah_?" she said.
"Still waving," he replied. "It is about that that I have come."
"About that?" she said wonderingly. "Oh, I see; you want to know if the one person it is written at has read it. Well, make your mind easy. I have. I have read it religiously--No, I don"t mean that; yes, I do; it"s the appropriate word."
"Really?" He tried to penetrate behind the bantering tone.
"Yes, really. You put your side of the case eloquently and well. I look forward to Friday with interest. I hope the paper is selling?"
"So, so," he said. "It is uphill work. The Jewish public looks on journalism as a branch of philanthropy, I fear, and Sidney suggests publishing our free-list as a "Jewish Directory.""
She smiled. "Mr. Graham is very amusing. Only, he is too well aware of it. He has been here once since that dinner, and we discussed you. He says he can"t understand how you came to be a cousin of his, even a second cousin. He says he is _L"Homme qui rit_, and you are _L"Homme qui prie_."
"He has let that off on me already, supplemented by the explanation that every extensive Jewish family embraces a genius and a lunatic. He admits that he is the genius. The unfortunate part for me," ended Raphael, laughing, "is, that he _is_ a genius."
"I saw two of his little things the other day at the Impressionist Exhibition in Piccadilly. They are very clever and dashing."
"I am told he draws ballet-girls," said Raphael, moodily.
"Yes, he is a disciple of Degas."
"You don"t like that style of art?" he said, a shade of concern in his voice.
"I do not," said Esther, emphatically. "I am a curious mixture. In art, I have discovered in myself two conflicting tastes, and neither is for the modern realism, which I yet admire in literature. I like poetic pictures, impregnated with vague romantic melancholy; and I like the white lucidity of cla.s.sic statuary. I suppose the one taste is the offspring of temperament, the other of thought; for intellectually, I admire the Greek ideas, and was glad to hear you correct Sidney"s perversion of the adjective. I wonder," she added, reflectively, "if one can worship the G.o.ds of the Greeks without believing in them."
"But you wouldn"t make a cult of beauty?"
"Not if you take beauty in the narrow sense in which I should fancy your cousin uses the word; but, in a higher and broader sense, is it not the one fine thing in life which is a certainty, the one ideal which is not illusion?"
"Nothing is illusion," said Raphael, earnestly. "At least, not in your sense. Why should the Creator deceive us?"
"Oh well, don"t let us get into metaphysics. We argue from different platforms," she said. "Tell me what you really came about in connection with the _Flag_."
"Mr. Goldsmith was kind enough to suggest that you might write for it."
"What!" exclaimed Esther, sitting upright in her arm-chair. "I? I write for an orthodox paper?"
"Yes, why not?"
"Do you mean I"m to take part in my own conversion?"
"The paper is not entirely religious," he reminded her.
"No, there are the advertis.e.m.e.nts." she said slily.
"Pardon me," he said. "We don"t insert any advertis.e.m.e.nts contrary to the principles of orthodoxy. Not that we are much tempted."
"You advertise soap," she murmured.
"Oh, please! Don"t you go in for those cheap sarcasms."
"Forgive me," she said. "Remember my conceptions of orthodoxy are drawn mainly from the Ghetto, where cleanliness, so far from being next to G.o.dliness, is nowhere in the vicinity. But what can I do for you?"
"I don"t know. At present the staff, the _Flag_-staff as Sidney calls it, consists of myself and a sub-editor, who take it in turn to translate the only regular outside contributor"s articles into English."
"Who"s that?"
"Melchitsedek Pinchas, the poet I told you of."
"I suppose he writes in Hebrew."
"No, if he did the translation would be plain sailing enough. The trouble is that he will write in English. I must admit, though, he improves daily. Our correspondents, too, have the same weakness for the vernacular, and I grieve to add that when they do introduce a Hebrew word, they do not invariably spell it correctly."
She smiled; her smile was never so fascinating as by firelight.
Raphael rose and paced the room nervously, flinging out his arms in uncouth fashion to emphasize his speech.
"I was thinking you might introduce a secular department of some sort which would brighten up the paper. My articles are so plaguy dull."
"Not so dull, for religious articles," she a.s.sured him.
"Could you treat Jewish matters from a social standpoint--gossipy sort of thing."
She shook her head. "I"m afraid to trust myself to write on Jewish subjects. I should be sure to tread on somebody"s corns."
"Oh, I have it!" he cried, bringing his arms in contact with a small Venetian vase which Esther, with great presence of mind, just managed to catch ere it reached the ground.
"No, I have it," she said, laughing. "Do sit down, else n.o.body can answer for the consequences."
She half pushed him into his chair, where he fell to warming his hands contemplatively.
"Well?" she said after a pause. "I thought you had an idea."
"Yes, yes," he said, rousing himself. "The subject we were just discussing--Art."
"But there is nothing Jewish about art."
"All n.o.ble work has its religious aspects. Then there are Jewish artists."
"Oh yes! your contemporaries do notice their exhibits, and there seem to be more of them than the world ever hears of. But if I went to a gathering for you how should I know which were Jews?"
"By their names, of course."
"By no means of course. Some artistic Jews have forgotten their own names."
"That"s a dig at Sidney."