"Naturally, Joshua! Geheimer Kommerzienrat, that's nothing! You know you don't believe that. I think we may well be satisfied with one another. Friedlaender, Friedheim, and Benas! That's an imposing triple alliance. I think we may be well content." "And with all that belong to it." "Even though they quarrel the moment they come together, at the bottom of their hearts they swear by one another and are proud of one another." "Besides, a bit of argument is entertaining, and brings life into the shindig." His wife looked at him reproachfully. "I beg your pardon! I withdraw 'shindig.'" "Indeed, you ought to be careful, Joe. One's language is bound to deteriorate when one indulges in such vulgar expressions." "But they're so distinctive and expressive, almost as good as the Jewish intonation." "Leave them to others." "Hold on, Fanny. Do you see how I have caught you? Who is exclusive? Who are the others? Who are the others? Pity that Hugo is not here." He was delighted and amused, and laughed at the embarrassment of his wife. She quickly recovered herself, and answered: "The others are the vulgar ones, the uncultured, the mob, with whom we have nothing in common, and don't want to have anything in common." "And the rest say the same of us. Let us have nothing to do with those aliens, those interlopers, those parasites, that ferment, which decomposes the healthy vigorous elements of the Aryan race. That's the gracious, charitable refrain." "Here we are again at the Jewish question," said Mrs. Benas, somewhat displeased, "we three, here alone." "Papa, mamma, and the baby," laughed Mr. Benas. "It's really not funny, Joshua," said Mrs. Benas, earnestly and thoughtfully. "It actually seems as if we could never get rid of it, as if it followed us everywhere. Mr. Friedheim is right. It sits at our table, it accompanies us to social gatherings, to the theatre, and to concert halls; it stands next to us wherever we go in the world, meets us on our travels, and forces itself into our dreams and our prayers." "You exaggerate, Fannsherl. The imagination and the eloquence of the Friedlaenders are awakening in you. We know how they think and speak, always in superlatives," he teased good-humoredly, in order to calm her excitement. "But you see how it is yourself, Joshua. We get here together cozily, in order to chat a bit, to rest ourselves after the strain of entertaining, we have no sinister intentions, in fact, we are ready to reproach our relatives with indiscretion, and before we know it, we are in the thick of it." "In the soup, _I_ should have said," he added, trying to give the talk a jesting turn. "Joshua, please, don't joke. I am in earnest. Isn't it very sad that all our thoughts should be dominated by this one subject? That we can't free ourselves from it any more? That we can't rise superior to it? That it intimidates us, makes us anxious, petty, serious, and embittered?"