exclaimed Jack in pleading tones, his face expressing his embarra.s.sment.
"I never said you did, Jack," rejoined Peter with mock solemnity in his voice. "I said you THOUGHT so. And now here he is,--look at him. Does he look like Scrooge or Shylock or some old skinflint who--" here he faced Cohen, his eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with merriment--"What are we going to do with this blasphemer, Isaac? Shall we boil him in oil as they did that old sixteenth-century saint you were telling me about the other night, or shall we--?"
The little tailor threw out his hands--each finger an exclamation point--and laughed heartily, cutting short Peter"s tirade.
"No--no--we do none of these dreadful things to Mr. Breen; he is too good to be a saint," and he patted Jack"s knees--"and then again it is only the truth. Mr. Breen is quite right; we are a race of money-getters, and we are also the world"s p.a.w.nbrokers and will always be. Sometimes we make a loan on a watch or a wedding ring to keep some poor soul from starving; sometimes it is a railroad to give a millionaire a yacht, or help buy his wife a string of pearls. It is quite the same, only over one shop we hang three gilt b.a.l.l.s: on the other we nail a sign which reads: "Financial Agents." And it is the same Jew, remember, who stands behind both counters. The first Jew is overhauled almost every day by the police; the second Jew is regarded as our public-spirited citizen. So you see, my young friend, that it is only a question of the amount of money you have got whether you loan on rings or railroads."
"And whether the Christian lifts his hat or his boot," laughed Peter.
Cohen leaned his elbows on his plump knees and went on, the slender gla.s.s still in his hand, from which now and then he took a sip. Peter sat buried in his chair, his cigar between his fingers. Jack held his peace; it was not for him to air his opinions in the presence of the two older men, and then again the tailor had suddenly become a savant.
"Of course, there are many things I wish were different," the tailor continued in a more thoughtful tone. "Many of my people forget their birthright and force themselves on the Christian, trying to break down the fence which has always divided us, and which is really our best protection. As long as we keep to ourselves we are a power.
Persecution,--and sometimes it amounts to that--is better than amalgamation; it brings out our better fighting qualities and makes us rely on ourselves. This is the view of our best thinkers, and they are right. Just hear me run on! Why talk about these things? They are for graybeards, not young fellows with the world before them." Cohen straightened up--laid his gla.s.s on the small table, waved his hand in denial to Peter who started to refill it, and continued, turning to Jack: "And now let me hear something about your own work, Mr. Breen," he said in his kindest and most interested voice. "Mr. Grayson tells me you are cutting a great tunnel. Under a mountain, is it not? Ah!--that is something worth doing. And here is this old uncle of yours with his fine clothes and his old wine, who does nothing but pore over his musty bank-books, and here am I in the cellar below, who can only sew on b.u.t.tons, and yet we have the impudence to criticise you. Really, I never heard of such conceit!"
"Oh!--but it isn"t my tunnel," Jack eagerly protested, greatly amused at the Jew"s talk; "I am just an a.s.sistant, Mr. Cohen." Somehow he had grown suddenly smaller since the little man had been talking.
"Yes,--of course, we are all a.s.sistants; Mr. Grayson a.s.sists at the bank, and I a.s.sist my man, Jacob, who makes such funny mistakes in the cut of his trousers. Oh, yes, that is quite the way life is made up. But about this tunnel? It is part of this new branch, is it not? Some of my friends have told me about it. And it is going straight through the mountain."
And then before Jack or Peter could reply the speaker branched out into an account of the financing of the great Mt. Cenis tunnel, and why the founder of the house of Rothschild, who had "a.s.sisted" in its construction, got so many decorations from foreign governments; the talk finally switching off to the enamelled and jewelled snuff boxes of Baron James Rothschild, whose collection had been the largest in Europe; and what had become of it; and then by one of those illogical jumps--often indulged in by well-informed men discussing any subject that absorbs them--brought up at Voltaire and Taine and the earlier days of the Revolution in which one of the little tailor"s ancestors had suffered spoliation and death.
Jack sat silent--he had long since found himself out of his depth--drinking in every word of the talk, his wonderment increasing every moment, not only over Cohen, but over Peter as well, whom he had never before heard so eloquent or so learned, or so entertaining.
When at last the little man rose to go, the boy, with one of those spontaneous impulses which was part of his nature, sprang from his seat, found the tailor"s hat himself, and conducting him to the door, wished him good-night with all the grace and well-meant courtesy he would show a prince of the blood, should he ever be fortunate enough to meet one.
Peter was standing on the mat, his back to the fire, when the boy returned.
"Jack, you delight me!" the old fellow cried. "Your father couldn"t have played host better. Really, I am beginning to believe I won"t have to lock you up in an asylum. You"re getting wonderfully sane, my boy,--real human. Jack, do you know that if you keep on this way I shall really begin to love you!"
"But what an extraordinary man," exclaimed Jack, ignoring Peter"s compliment and badinage. "Is there anything he does not know?"
"Yes,--many things. Oh! a great many things. He doesn"t know how to be rude, or ill bred, or purse-proud. He doesn"t know how to snub people who are poorer than he is, or to push himself in where he isn"t wanted; or to talk behind people"s backs after he has accepted their hospitality. Just plain gentleman journeyman tailor, Jack. And now, my boy, be honest. Isn"t he a relief after some of the people you and I meet every day?"
Jack settled again in his chair. His mind was not at all easy.
"Yes, he is, and that makes me afraid I was rude. I didn"t mean to be."
"No,--you acted just right. I wanted to draw him out so you could hear, and you must say that he was charming. And the best of it is that he could have talked equally well on a dozen other subjects."
For some time Jack did not answer. Despite Peter"s good opinion of him, he still felt that he had either said or done something he should be ashamed of. He knew it was his snap judgment about Cohen that had been the cause of the object lesson he had just received. Peter had not said so in so many words--it was always with a jest or a laugh that he corrected his faults, but he felt their truth all the same.
For some minutes he leaned back in his chair, his eyes on the ceiling; then he said in a tone of conviction:
"I WAS wrong about Mr. Cohen, Uncle Peter. I am always putting my foot in it. He is an extraordinary man. He certainly is, to listen to, whatever he is in his business."
"No, Jack, my boy--you were only honest," Peter rejoined, pa.s.sing over the covert allusion to the financial side of the tailor. "You didn"t like his race and you said so. Act first. Then you found out you were wrong and you said so. Act second. Then you discovered you owed him an ample apology and you bowed him out as if he had been a duke. Act third.
And now comes the epilogue--Better be kind and human than be king! Eh, Jack?" and the old gentleman threw back his head and laughed heartily.
Jack made no reply. He was through with Cohen;--something else was on his mind of far more importance than the likes and dislikes of all the Jews in Christendom. Something he had intended to lay before Peter at the very moment the old fellow had sent him for Isaac--something he had come all the way to New York to discuss with him; something that had worried him for days. There was but half an hour left; then he must get his bag and say good-night and good-by for another week or more.
Peter noticed the boy"s mood and laid his hand on his wrist. Somehow this was not the same Jack.
"I haven"t hurt you, my son, have I?" he asked with a note of tenderness in his voice.
"Hurt me! You couldn"t hurt me, Uncle Peter!" There was no question of his sincerity as he spoke. It sprang straight from his heart.
"Well, then, what"s the matter?--out with it. No secrets from blundering old Peter," he rejoined in a satisfied tone.
Jack laughed gently: "Well, sir, it"s about the work." It wasn"t; but it might lead to it later on.
"Work!--what"s the matter with the work! Anything wrong?" There was a note of alarm now that made Jack reply hastily:
"No, it will be finished next month: we are lining up the arches this week and the railroad people have already begun to dump their cross ties along the road bed. It"s about another job. Mr. MacFarlane, I am afraid, hasn"t made much money on the fill and tunnel, but he has some other work offered him up in Western Maryland, which he may take, and which, if he does, may pay handsomely. He wants me to go with him. It means a shanty and a negro cook, as near as I can figure it, but I shall get used to that, I suppose. What do you think about it?"
"Well," chuckled Peter--it was not news; MacFarlane had told him all about it the week before at the Century--"if you can keep the shanty tight and the cook sober you may weather it. It must be great fun living in a shanty. I never tried it, but I would like to."
"Yes, perhaps it is,--but it has its drawbacks. I can"t come to see you for one thing, and then the home will be broken up. Miss Ruth will go back to her grandmother"s for a while, she says, and later on she will visit the Fosters at Newport and perhaps spend a month with Aunt Felicia." He called her so now.
Jack paused for some further expression of opinion from his always ready adviser, but Peter"s eyes were still fixed on the slow, dying fire.
"It will be rather a rough job from what I saw of it," Jack went on. "We are to run a horizontal shaft into some ore deposits. Mr. MacFarlane and I have been studying the plans for some time; we went over the ground together last month. That"s why I didn"t come to you last week."
Peter twisted his head: "What"s the name of the nearest town?"
MacFarlane had told him but he had forgotten.
"Morfordsburg. I was there once with my father when I was a boy. He had some ore lands near where these are;--those he left me. The c.u.mberland property we always called it. I told you about it once. It will never amount to anything,--except by expensive boring. That is also what hurts the value of this new property the Maryland Mining Company owns. That"s what they want Mr. MacFarlane for. Now, what would you do if you were me?"
"What sort of a town is Morfordsburg?" inquired Peter, ignoring Jack"s question, his head still buried between his shoulders.
"Oh, like all other country villages, away from railroad connection."
"Any good houses,--any to rent?"
"Yes,--I saw two."
"And you want my advice, do you, Jack?" he burst out, rising erect in his seat.
"Yes."
"Well, I"d stick to MacFarlane and take Ruth with me."
Jack broke out into a forced laugh. Peter had arrived by a short cut!
Now he knew, he was a mind reader.
"She won"t go," he answered in a voice that showed he was open to conviction. Peter, perhaps, had something up his sleeve.
"Have you asked her?" The old fellow"s eyes were upon him now.
"No,--not in so many words."
"Well, try it. She has always gone with her father; she loves the outdoor life and it loves her. I never saw her look as pretty as she is now, and she has her horse too. Try asking her yourself, beg her to come along and keep house and make a home for the three of you."