“Thank you very much, Mr. Breen--and thank your young lady too. You are very kind and you are very polite. Yes--I mean it--very polite. And you are sincere in what you say; that is the best of all. But I cannot go. It is not the travelling at night--that is nothing. You and your lady would be glad to see me and that would be worth it all, but the magnificent Miss Grayson, she would not be glad to see me. You see, my dear young man”--here the smile got loose and scampered up to his eyelids--“I am a most unfortunate combination--oh, most unfortunate--for the magnificent Miss Grayson. If I was only a tailor I might be forgiven; if I was just a Jew I might be forgiven; but when I am both a tailor and a Jew”--here the irrepressible went to pieces in a merry laugh--“don't you see how impossible it is? And you--you, Mr. Breen! She would never forgive you. 'My friend, Mr. Cohen,' you would have to say, and she could do nothing. She must answer that she is most glad to see me--or she might NOT answer, which would be worse. And it is not her fault. You can't break down the barriers of centuries in a day. No--no--I will not compromise you in that way. Let me come to see you some time when it is all over, when your good uncle can come too. He will bring me; perhaps. And now give my best respects to the lady--I forget her name, and say to her for me, that if she is as thoughtful of other people as you are, you deserve to be a very happy couple.” Jack shook the little man's hand and went his way. He was sorry and he was glad. He was also somewhat ashamed in his heart. It was not altogether himself who had been thoughtful of other people. But for Peter, perhaps, he might never have paid the visit.