the parnass could no longer delay the diplomatic encounter. 'twas vain to accuse the others of tactlessness, and shirk the exhibition of his own tact. he exhibited it most convincingly by not informing the others that he was about to put it to a trial.

hence he refrained from improving a synagogue opportunity, but sneaked one week-day towards the shop. he lingered without, waiting to be invited within. thus all appearance of his coming to rebuke would be removed. his mission should pop up from a casual conversation.

he peeped into the window, passed and repassed.

simeon samuels, aware of a fly hovering on the purlieus of his web, issued from its centre, as the parnass turned his back on the shop and gazed musingly at the sky.

'looks threatening for rain, sir,' observed simeon samuels, addressing the back. 'our waterproofs—— bless my soul, but it surely isn't our parnass!'

'yes, i'm just strolling about. i seem to have stumbled on your establishment.'

'lucky for me.'

'and a pleasure for me. i never knew you had such a nice display.'

'won't you come inside, and see the stock?'

'thank you, i must really get back home. and besides, as you say, it is threatening for rain.'

'i'll lend you a waterproof, or even sell you one cheap. come in, sir—come in. pray honour me.'

[154]congratulating himself on catching the spider, the fly followed him within.

a quarter of an hour passed, in which he must buzz about the stock. it seemed vastly difficult to veer round to the sabbath through the web of conversation the spider wove round him. simeon samuels' conception of a marine-dealer's stock startled him by its comprehensiveness, and when he was asked to admire an indian shawl, he couldn't help inquiring what it was doing there.

'well,' explained simeon samuels, 'occasionally a captain or first mate will come back to england, home, and beauty, and will have neglected to buy foreign presents for his womenkind. i then remind him of the weakness of womenkind for such trophies of their menfolks' travel.'

'excellent. i won't tell your competitors.'

'oh, those cattle!' simeon snapped his fingers. 'if they stole my idea, they'd not be able to carry it out. it's not easy to cajole a captain.'

'no, you're indeed a honeyed rascal,' thought the parnass.

'i also do a brisk business in chutney,' went on simeon. 'it's a thing women are especially fond of having brought back to them from india. and yet it's the last thing their menkind think of till i remind them of it on their return.'

'i certainly brought back none,' said the parnass, smiling in spite of himself.

'you have been in india?'

'i have,' replied the parnass, with a happy inspiration, 'and i brought back to my wife something more stimulating than chutney.'

[155]'indeed?'

'yes, the story of the beni-israel, the black jews, who, surrounded by all those millions of hindoos, still keep their sabbath.'

'ah, poor niggers. then you've been half round the world.'

'all round the world, for i went there and back by different routes. and it was most touching, wherever i went, to find everywhere a colony of jews, and everywhere the holy sabbath kept sacred.'

'but on different days, of course,' said simeon samuels.

'eh? not at all! on the same day.'

'on the same day! how could that be? the day changes with every move east or west. when it's day here, it's night in australia.'

darkness began to cloud the presidential brow.

'don't you try to make black white!' he said angrily.

'it's you that are trying to make white black,' retorted simeon samuels. 'perhaps you don't know that i hail from australia, and that by working on saturday i escape profaning my native australian sabbath, while you, who have been all round the world, and have either lost or gained a day, according as you travelled east or west, are desecrating your original sabbath either by working on friday or smoking on sunday.'

the parnass felt his head going round—he didn't know whether east or west. he tried to clear it by a pinch of snuff, which he in vain strove to make judicial.

'oh, and so, and so—atchew!—and so you're the saint and i'm the sinner!' he cried sarcastically.

'no, i don't profess to be a saint,' replied simeon [156]samuels somewhat unexpectedly. 'but i do think the saturday was meant for palestine, not for the lands of the exile, where another day of rest rules. when you were in india you probably noted that the mohammedans keep friday. a poor jew in the bazaar is robbed of his hindoo customers on friday, of his jews on saturday, and his christians on sunday.'

'the fourth commandment is eternal!' said the parnass with obstinate sublimity.

'but the fifth says, "that thy days may be long in the land which the lord thy god giveth thee." i believe this reward belongs to all the first five commandments—not only to the fifth—else an orphan would have no chance of long life. keep the sabbath in the land that the lord giveth thee; not in england, which isn't thine.'

'oho!' retorted the parnass. 'then at that rate in england you needn't honour your father and mother.'

'not if you haven't got them!' rejoined simeon samuels. 'and if you haven't got a land, you can't keep its sabbath. perhaps you think we can keep the jubilee also without a country.'

'the sabbath is eternal,' repeated the parnass doggedly. 'it has nothing to do with countries. before we got to the promised land we kept the sabbath in the wilderness.'

'yes, and god sent a double dose of manna on the friday. do you mean to say he sends us here a double dose of profit?'

'he doesn't let us starve. we prospered well enough before you brought your wretched example——'

'then my wretched example cannot lead the [157]congregation away. i am glad of it. you do them much more harm by your way of sabbath-breaking.'

'my way!'

'yes, my dear old father—peace be upon him!—would have been scandalized to see the burden you carry on the sabbath.'

'what burden do i carry?'

'your snuff-box!'

the parnass almost dropped it. 'that little thing!'

'i call it a cumbrous, not to say tasteless thing. but before the almighty there is no great and no small. one who stands in such a high place in the synagogue must be especially mindful, and every unnecessary burden——'

'but snuff is necessary for me—i can't do without it.'

'other presidents have done without it. as it is written in jeremiah: "and the wild asses did stand in the high places; they snuffed up the wind."'

the parnass flushed like a beetroot. 'i'll teach you to know your place, sir.' he turned his back on the scoffer, and strode towards the door.

'but if you'd care for a smaller snuff-box,' said simeon samuels, 'i have an artistic assortment.'