wild confusion
of ideas in his mind; he thought that he was becoming insane. Little by
little, the chaos became less tumultuous; order began to reign, light to
dawn. Samuel Brohl felt that he had had a film over his eyes, and that
it was now removed. He saw things that he never had seen before, and
he felt joy mingled with terror. He learned _The Merchant of Venice_
by heart. He shut himself up in the barn, so that he might cry out with
Shylock: "Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you
tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you
wrong us, shall we not revenge?" He repeated, too, with Lorenzo:

"Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

Samuel sometimes rose at night to watch the heavens, and he fancied he
heard the voices of the "young-eyed cherubins." He dreamed of a world
where Jessicas and Portias were to be met, of a world where Jews were
as proud as Shylock, as vindictive as Shylock, and, as Shylock, ate the
hearts of their enemies for revenge. He also dreamed, poor fool, that
there was in Samuel Brohl's mind or bosom an immortal soul, and that
in this soul there was music, but that he could not hear it because the
muddy vesture of decay too grossly closed it in. Then he experienced a
feeling of disgust for Galicia, for the tavern, for the tavern-keeper,
and for Samuel Brohl himself. An old schoolmaster, who owned a
harpsichord, taught him to play on it, and, believing he was doing
good, lent him books. One day, Samuel modestly expressed to his father
a desire to go to the gymnasium at Lemberg to learn various things
that seemed good to him to know. It was then that he received from the
paternal hand a great blow, which made him see all the stars of heaven
in broad daylight. Old Jeremiah Brohl had taken a dislike to his son
Samuel Brohl, because he thought he saw something in his eyes that
seemed to say that Samuel despised his father.

"Poor devil!" murmured Count Abel, picking up a pebble and tossing it
into the air. "Fate owes him compensation, it has dea