t pah! why do I talk with you?"
He began to pace the room. "The fact that I have such a delightful home
to exchange for gaol is just the thing that should make you believe in
my sincerity. No, my respected brother-in-law"--and he made a sudden
theatrical gesture, and his voice leapt to a roar,--"understand I will
carry on my life-mission as I choose, and never--never to satisfy every
fool will I carry the ass." His voice sank. "You know the fable."

"Your mission! The Public Prosecutor was right in saying it was to
excite the non-possessing classes to hatred and contempt of the
possessing class."

"He was. I live but to point out to the working-man how he is
exploited by capitalists like you."

"And ruin your own sister!"

"Ha, ha! So you're afraid I shall succeed. Good!" His blue eyes
blazed. He stood still, an image of triumphant Will.

"You will succeed only in disgracing your relatives," said Friedland
sullenly.

His brother-in-law broke into Homeric laughter. "Ho, ho," he cried.
"Now I see. You are afraid that I'll come to Prague, that I'll visit
you and cry out to your fashionable circle: 'I, Ferdinand Lassalle,
the pernicious demagogue of all your journals, Governmental and
Progressive alike, the thief of the casket-trial, the Jew-traitor, the
gaol-bird, I am the brother-in-law of your host,' And so you've rushed
to Berlin to break off with me. Ho, ho, ho!"

Friedland gave him a black look and rushed from the room. Lassalle
laughed on, scarcely noticing his departure. His brain was busy with
that comical scene, the recall of which had put the enemy to flight.
On his migration from Berlin to Prague, when he got the gas-contract,
Friedland, by a profuse display of his hospitality, and a careful
concealment of his Jewish birth, wormed his way among families of
birth and position, and finally into the higher governmental circles.
One day, when he was on the eve of dining the _elite_ of Prague,
Lassalle's old father turned up accidentally on a visit to his
daughter and son-in-law. Each in turn besought him hurriedly not to
let slip that they were Jews. The old man was annoyed, but made no
reply. When all the guests were seated, old Lassalle rose to speak,
and when silence fell, he asked if they knew they were at a Jew's
table. "I hold it my duty to inform you," he said, "that I am a Jew,
that my daughter is a Jewess, and my son-in-law a Jew. I will not
purchase by deceit the honor of dining with you." The wel