n is very rare, because to see what is honest
it is necessary to look at things without self-interest or desire.'

'I am certainly not such a man. The most I can say is that I try to be
more honest every day.'

'That is very well said,' said the Jew. 'If you had believed in your
own honesty, I should have doubted it.' Then, in a very simple and quiet
way, he told the curate a strange story.

He said that he lived in Antwerp. They were five in one family--the
parents, a sister and brother, and himself. His father and brother did
business with the English ships, but he was a teacher and reader in the
synagogue. There had been in their family a very sacred heirloom in the
form of an amulet or charm. Their forefathers had believed that it came
from Jerusalem before their nation lost the holy city; but he himself
did not think that this could be true; he only knew that it was ancient,
and possessed very valuable properties as a talisman to those who knew
how to use it. About five years before, his sister, who was beautiful
and wayward, had loved and married a French sea-captain. The father
cursed his daughter, but the mother could not let her go from them under
the fear of this curse, and she hung the amulet about her neck as a
safeguard. Alas for such safeguard! in a few weeks the captain's ship
was wrecked, and all on her were drowned. He said that it was that same
ship which lay near them, a wreck among the waves, and his sister lay
buried beneath their feet.

The family did not hear of the wreck till some time after the burial,
and then they knew for the first time what their mother had done with
the amulet. His brother came over at once to this town to seek it, but
in vain. The people said they had not seen the necklace; that it had
certainly not been buried with the girl. The people seemed simple and
honest; the brother was a shrewd man, and he believed that they spoke
the truth. He returned home, in distress; they could not tell what to
think, for they knew their sister would not have dared to take off the
necklace, and the chain was too strong to be broken by the violence of
the waves.

Some months after they heard that there was a young Englishman dying in
Antwerp who came from this town. The name of the town was graven on
their hearts, and they went to see him. He was a mere boy, a pretty boy,
and when they asked him about the wreck he became excited in his
weakness and fever, and told them all the story of it