admit, Seigneur Pontius Pilate,' said Jonas the banker, 'that
it is impossible for audacity and personality to go further.'

'But it seems to me,' said Aurelia to Jane quietly, in remarking to her
that the learned doctor had precisely the seat of honor at the feast,
'it seems to me that the Seigneur Baruch has a great affection for these
places.'

'That is the very reason why he is so furious against the young man of
Nazareth, who has a horror of all hypocrisy,' replied Jane.

Baruch continued, more and more furious: "But here, dear seigneur, is
something more abominable still: 'beware,' added the seditious vagabond,
'beware of those doctors of the law who devour the houses of the widows
under pretence of making long prayers. These persons,' and the audacious
fellow again pointed me out, 'these persons will be punished more
rigorously than the others.' Yes, this is what I heard the Nazarene say
in direct words. And now, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, I declare to you, if
you do not repress at once this unbridled license, which dares attack
the authority of the doctors of the law, that is, law and authority
themselves, if they are thus allowed to signalize the senators with
impunity to public scorn and contempt we are treading on a precipice!"

'Let him talk,' said Pontius Pilate, again emptying his cup; 'let him
talk, and let us live and enjoy!'

"To live and enjoy is not possible, Seigneur Pontius Pilate, when we
foresee great disasters,' replied the banker Jonas; 'I declare that the
fears of my worthy friend Baruch are well-founded.--Yes, and like him I
repeat, 'we are treading on a precipice;' this carpenter of Nazareth
has an audacity that passes all bounds; he respects nothing, nothing;
yesterday 'twas the law, authority, he attacked in their
representatives; to-day 'tis the rich against whom he excites the dregs
of the populace. Has he not dared to pronounce these execrable words:
'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"

At this citation of the Seigneur Jonas, all the guests exclaimed, at one
moment, ''Tis abominable!'

'What shall we come to?'

'To an abyss; as the Seigneur Baruch has so well demonstrated!'

'And so, all of us, who possess gold in our coffers, are thus doomed to
eternal fire!'

'Compared to camels, that cannot pass through the eye of a needle!'

'And these monstrosities are said and repeated by the Nazarene to