nly an--an--analogy,' stammered the poor minister.

'An apology! Oh, so you apologized to him, too! Better and better.'

'No, no, I mean a comparison.'

'A comparison! You never compared me to the Holy Temple. And I'm
Solomon--Solomon who built it.'

'Solomon was wise,' murmured the minister.

'Oh, and I'm silly. If I were you, Mr. Gabriel, I'd remember my place
and who I owed it to. But for me, Rochinsky would have stood in your
shoes----'

'Rochinsky is lucky.'

'Oh, indeed! So this is your gratitude. Very well. Either Simeon
Samuels shuts up shop or you do. That's final. Don't forget you were
only elected for three years.' And the little man flung out.

The _Parnass_, meeting his minister later in the street, took a
similar view.

'You really must preach again next Sabbath,' he said. 'The
congregation is terribly wrought up. There may even be a riot. If
Simeon Samuels keeps open next Sabbath, I can't answer that they won't
go and break his windows.'

'Then _they_ will break the Sabbath.'

'Oh, they may wait till the Sabbath is out.'

'They'll be too busy opening their own shops.'

'Don't argue. You _must_ preach his shop shut.'

'Very well,' said the Reverend Gabriel sullenly.

'That's right. A man with a family must rise to great occasions. Do
you think I'd be where I am now if I hadn't had the courage to buy a
bankrupt stock that I didn't see my way to paying for? It's a fight
between you and Simeon Samuels.'

'May his name be blotted out!' impatiently cried the minister in the
Hebrew imprecation.

'No, no,' replied the _Parnass_, smiling. 'His name must not be
blotted out--it must be mentioned, and--unmistakably.'

'It is against the Talmud. To shame a man is equivalent to murder,'
the minister persisted.

'Yet it is written in Leviticus: "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy
neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him."' And the _Parnass_ took a
triumphant pinch.

VIII

'_Simeon_ and Levi are brethren ... into their assembly be not thou
united: in their self-will they digged down a wall.'

The _Parnass_ applauded mentally. The text, from Jacob's blessing,
was ingeniously expurgated to meet the case. The wall, he perceived at
once, was the Sabbath--the Jews' one last protection against the outer
world, the one last dyke against the waves of heathendom. Nor did his
complacency diminish when his intuition proved correct, and the
preacher thundered against the self-will--ay, and the self-seeki