" repeated the nobleman.

A deep voice, as if in sarcastic retribution, answered with another
question.

"Did the gracious lord not understand?"

This ingenuous question put an end to the young man's self-control,
and he burst out into a peal of laughter and turned towards the door.

"Savages!" he murmured to himself, and he still laughed as he crossed
the precincts, and the people who crowded round the Rabbi's window
looked after him with astonished and deeply-offended eyes. The young
man laughed, tickled by the ludicrous aspect of the whole scene; yet
under his apparent merriment there was an under-current of resentment
and anger, that the Wise Men of Israel should have shown themselves
to him like savages, who did not even speak the language of the
country whose air they breathed, and that had nourished them for many
centuries. The people around the Rabbi's hut followed him with looks
of displeasure almost amounting to hatred, because he had blasphemed
what they loved and revered beyond anything. Poor sages of Israel
with their worshippers! Poor Edomite laughing at the sage and his
worshippers! But poorest of all, the country, the sons of which after
journeying together for so many centuries do not understand each
other's heart and language.

At the gate of the precincts Jankiel Kamionker met the young
nobleman.

"Well, Jankiel," he said, "you have indeed a wise and learned Rabbi."

Jankiel did not reply to this, but began at once to speak about the
agreement and the Kamionka distillery. He spoke glibly and easily,
and did not appear to remember what had occurred or refer to it.
Neither did the lord of Kamionka, upon whom the whole scene had left
an impression of astonishment and amusement. The young prophet, and
Jankiel with his red curls trying to evict him; the Rabbi, who only
spoke the Jewish language, and his companion in the wonderful
costume: it was as good as a play. How his friends would enjoy his
description; how the good-natured Sir Andrew would laugh, and his
daughter, the beautiful Hedwiga, of whom he thought night and day as
the believer in his paradise, would smile!

Thinking of her he jumped into the carriage, and looking at the west,
he exclaimed:

"How long you have kept me!"

He nodded to Jankiel and called to the coachman:

"Drive on."

The four grays and the light carriage carried him swiftly through the
town till he disappeared in a cloud of golden dust. In the western
sky the r