"Quite so. I have been explicit and circumstantial in order that there
shall be no mistake. When I have finished you will have few, if any,
questions to ask, because you will know everything it is in my power
to tell. Upon hearing your name his lordship remarked that it was a
Jewish name. 'Yes,' said the young man, 'he is a Jew.' Lord Storndale
was angry and distressed. I admit that it is an unreasonable
prejudice, but he has an invincible dislike to Jews, and it shocked
him to think that his son contemplated a marriage with a Jewess. I
need dwell no longer upon the interview, which now took a stormy turn,
and it ended by the son abruptly leaving the room. On no account
whatever, Mr. Cohen, will Lord Storndale or any member of the family
consent to such an alliance; if it is accomplished the young man will
be thrown upon his own resources, and his wife will not be recognized
by his kinsfolk. The trouble has already reached a climax. The young
gentleman is hot-headed--a Storndale failing--and he declined to
listen to remonstrances; the consequence is that he has been forbidden
his father's home till he comes to reason. But despite his
extravagances and the constant and perplexing involvements issuing
therefrom, his father has an affection for him, and is bent upon
saving his family from----"
The lawyer pausing here, with an awkward cough, as though he was
choking down a word, Aaron quietly added it.
"Disgrace?"
"Well, yes," said Mr. Dillworthy briskly, "we will not mince matters.
It is not my word, but Lord Storndale's. He would account such an
alliance a disgrace. I will say nothing in his excuse. In all
civilized countries we have living evidences of happy unions between
members of the aristocracy and wealthy daughters of Israel, and also
living evidences of happy mixed marriages between persons neither
aristocratic nor wealthy; and these might be brought forward as
powerful arguments against the view my client entertains. But they
would have no weight with him. We must take into consideration the
pride of race."
"Yes," said Aaron, still speaking in a quiet tone, "we must take that
into consideration. You have not quite finished, sir."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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