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 glass 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
buttons, 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 assistant, Mr. Cohen." Somehow he had
grown suddenly smaller since the little man had been talking.

"Yes,--of course, we are all assistants; Mr. Grayson assists at the
bank, and I assist 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 "assisted" 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 larges