"Yes," said the poet, looking up eagerly, "and I am famous through the world. _Metatoron"s Flames_ vill shine eternally." His head drooped again. "I have all I vant, and you are the best man in the vorld. But I am the most miserable."
"Nonsense! cheer up," said Raphael.
"I can never cheer up any more. I vill shoot myself. I have realised the emptiness of life. Fame, money, love--all is Dead Sea Fruit."
His shoulders heaved convulsively; he was sobbing. Raphael stood by helpless, his respect for Pinchas as a poet and for himself as a practical Englishman returning. He pondered over the strange fate that had thrown him among three geniuses--a male idealist, a female pessimist, and a poet who seemed to belong to both s.e.xes and categories. And yet there was not one of the three to whom he seemed able to be of real service. A letter brought in by the office-boy rudely snapped the thread of reflection. It contained three enclosures. The first was an epistle; the hand was the hand of Mr.
Goldsmith, but the voice was the voice of his beautiful spouse.
"DEAR MR. LEON,
"I have perceived many symptoms lately of your growing divergency from the ideas with which the _Flag of Judah_ was started. It is obvious that you find yourself unable to emphasise the olden features of our faith--the questions of _kosher_ meat, etc.--as forcibly as our readers desire. You no doubt cherish ideals which are neither practical nor within the grasp of the ma.s.ses to whom we appeal. I fully appreciate the delicacy that makes you reluctant--in the dearth of genius and Hebrew learning--to saddle me with the task of finding a subst.i.tute, but I feel it is time for me to restore your peace of mind even at the expense of my own. I have been thinking that, with your kind occasional supervision, it might be possible for Mr. Pinchas, of whom you have always spoken so highly, to undertake the duties of editorship, Mr. Sampson remaining sub-editor as before. Of course I count on you to continue your purely scholarly articles, and to impress upon the two gentlemen who will now have direct relations with me my wish to remain in the background.
"Yours sincerely, "HENRY GOLDSMITH.
"_P.S._--On second thoughts I beg to enclose a cheque for four guineas, which will serve instead of a formal month"s notice, and will enable you to accept at once my wife"s invitation, likewise enclosed herewith. Your sister seconds Mrs. Goldsmith in the hope that you will do so. Our tenancy of the Manse only lasts a few weeks longer, for of course we return for the New Year holidays."
This was the last straw. It was not so much the dismissal that staggered him, but to be called a genius and an idealist himself--to have his own orthodoxy impugned--just at this moment, was a rough shock.
"Pinchas!" he said, recovering himself. Pinchas would not look up. His face was still hidden in his hands. "Pinchas, listen! You are appointed editor of the paper instead of me. You are to edit the next number."
Pinchas"s head shot up like a catapult. He bounded to his feet, then bent down again to Raphael"s coat-tail and kissed it pa.s.sionately.
"Ah, my benefactor, my benefactor!" he cried in a joyous frenzy. "Now vill I give it to English Judaism. She is in my power. Oh, my benefactor!"
"No, no," said Raphael, disengaging himself. "I have nothing to do with it."
"But de paper--she is yours!" said the poet, forgetting his English in his excitement.
"No, I am only the editor. I have been dismissed, and you are appointed instead of me."
Pinchas dropped back into his chair like a lump of lead. He hung his head again and folded his arms.
"Then they get not me for editor," he said moodily.
"Nonsense, why not?" said Raphael, flushing.
"Vat you think me?" Pinchas asked indignantly. "Do you think I have a stone for a heart like Gideon, M.P., or your English stockbrokers and Rabbis? No, you shall go on being editor. They think you are not able enough, not orthodox enough--they vant me--but do not fear. I shall not accept."
"But then what will become of the next number?" remonstrated Raphael, touched. "I must not edit it."
"Vat you care? Let her die!" cried Pinchas in gloomy complacency. "You have made her; vy should she survive you? It is not right another should valk in your shoes--least of all, I."
"But I don"t mind--I don"t mind a bit," Raphael a.s.sured him. Pinchas shook his head obstinately. "If the paper dies, Sampson will have nothing to live upon," Raphael reminded him.
"True, vairy true," said the poet, patently beginning to yield. "That alters things. Ve cannot let Sampson starve."
"No, you see!" said Raphael. "So you must keep it alive."
"Yes, but," said Pinchas, getting up thoughtfully, "Sampson is going off soon on tour vith his comic opera. He vill not need the _Flag_."
"Oh, well, edit it till then."
"Be it so," said the poet resignedly. "Till Sampson"s comic opera tour."
"Till Sampson"s comic opera tour," repeated Raphael contentedly.
CHAPTER XVI
LOVE"S TEMPTATIONS
Raphael walked out of the office, a free man. Mountains of responsibility seemed to roll off his shoulders. His Messianic emotions were conscious of no laceration at the failure of this episode of his life; they were merged in greater. What a fool he had been to waste so much time, to make no effort to find the lonely girl!
Surely, Esther must have expected him, if only as a friend, to give some sign that he did not share in the popular execration. Perchance she had already left London or the country, only to be found again by protracted knightly quest! He felt grateful to Providence for setting him free for her salvation. He made at once for the publishers" and asked for her address. The junior partner knew of no such person. In vain Raphael reminded him that they had published _Mordecai Josephs_.
That was by Mr. Edward Armitage. Raphael accepted the convention, and demanded this gentleman"s address instead. That, too, was refused, but all letters would be forwarded. Was Mr. Armitage in England? All letters would be forwarded. Upon that the junior partner stood, inexpugnable.
Raphael went out, not uncomforted. He would write to her at once. He got letter-paper at the nearest restaurant and wrote "Dear Miss Ansell." The rest was a blank. He had not the least idea how to renew the relationship after what seemed an eternity of silence. He stared helplessly round the mirrored walls, seeing mainly his only helpless stare. The placard "Smoking not permitted till 8 P.M." gave him a sudden shock. He felt for his pipe, and ultimately found it stuck, half-full of charred bird"s-eye, in his breast-pocket. He had apparently not been smoking for some hours. That completed his perturbation. He felt he had undergone too much that day to be in a fit state to write a judicious letter. He would go home and rest a bit, and write the letter--very diplomatically--in the evening. When he got home, he found to his astonishment it was Friday evening, when letter-writing is of the devil. Habit carried him to synagogue, where he sang the Sabbath hymn, "Come, my beloved, to meet the bride," with strange sweet tears and a complete indifference to its sacred allegorical signification. Next afternoon he haunted the publishers"
doorstep with the brilliant idea that Mr. Armitage sometimes crossed it. In this hope, he did _not_ write the letter; his phrases, he felt, would be better for the inspiration of that gentleman"s presence.
Meanwhile he had ample time to mature them, to review the situation in every possible light, to figure Esther under the most poetical images, to see his future alternately radiant and sombre. Four long summer days of espionage only left him with a heartache, and a specialist knowledge of the sort of persons who visit publishers. A temptation to bribe the office-boy he resisted as unworthy.
Not only had he not written that letter, but Mr. Henry Goldsmith"s edict and Mrs. Henry Goldsmith"s invitation were still unacknowledged.
On Thursday morning a letter from Addie indirectly reminded him both of his remissness to her hostess, and of the existence of the _Flag of Judah_. He remembered it was the day of going to press; a vision of the difficulties of the day flashed vividly upon his consciousness; he wondered if his ex-lieutenants were finding new ones. The smell of the machine-room was in his nostrils; it co-operated with the appeal of his good-nature to draw him to his successor"s help. Virtue proved its own reward. Arriving at eleven o"clock, he found Little Sampson in great excitement, with the fountain of melody dried up on his lips.
"Thank G.o.d!" he cried. "I thought you"d come when you heard the news."
"What news?"
"Gideon the member for Whitechapel"s dead. Died suddenly, early this morning."
"How shocking!" said Raphael, growing white.
"Yes, isn"t it?" said Little Sampson. "If he had died yesterday, I shouldn"t have minded it so much, while to-morrow would have given us a clear week. He hasn"t even been ill," he grumbled. "I"ve had to send Pinchas to the Museum in a deuce of a hurry, to find out about his early life. I"m awfully upset about it, and what makes it worse is a wire from Goldsmith, ordering a page obituary at least with black rules, besides a leader. It"s simply sickening. The proofs are awful enough as it is--my blessed editor has been writing four columns of his autobiography in his most original English, and he wants to leave out all the news pars to make room for "em. In one way Gideon"s death is a boon; even Pinchas"ll see his stuff must be crowded out. It"s frightful having to edit your editor. Why wasn"t he made sub?"
"That would have been just as trying for you," said Raphael, with a melancholy smile. He took up a galley-proof and began to correct it.
To his surprise he came upon his own paragraph about Strelitski"s resignation: it caused him fresh emotion. This great spiritual crisis had quite slipped his memory, so egoistic are the best of us at times.
"Please be careful that Pinchas"s autobiography does not crowd that out," he said.
Pinchas arrived late, when Little Sampson was almost in despair. "It is all right," he shouted, waving a roll of ma.n.u.script. "I have him from the cradle--the stupid stockbroker, the Man-of-the-Earth, who sent me back my poesie, and vould not let me teach his boy Judaism.
And vhile I had the inspiration I wrote the leader also in the Museum--it is here--oh, vairy beaudiful! Listen to the first sentence.
"The Angel of Death has pa.s.sed again over Judea; he has flown off with our visest and our best, but the black shadow of his ving vill long rest upon the House of Israel!" And the end is vordy of the beginning.
"He is dead; but he lives for ever enshrined in the n.o.ble tribute to his genius in _Metatoron"s Flames_.""
Little Sampson seized the "copy" and darted with it to the composing-room, where Raphael was busy giving directions. By his joyful face Raphael saw the crisis was over. Little Sampson handed the ma.n.u.script to the foreman, then, drawing a deep breath of relief, he began to hum a sprightly march.
"I say, you"re a nice chap!" he grumbled, cutting himself short with a staccato that was not in the music.