"I ought scarcely to drink with you after your reception of me," replied Manasseh unappeased. "It is not even as if I came to _schnorr_ for myself; it is to the finances of our house of worship that I wished to give you an opportunity of contributing." "Aha! your vaunted community hard up?" queried Joseph, with a complacent twinkle. "Sir! We are the richest congregation in the world. We want nothing from anybody," indignantly protested Manasseh, as he absent-mindedly took the cup of coffee which Grobstock had ordered for him. "The difficulty merely is that, in honour of my daughter's wedding, I have donated a hundred pounds to the Synagogue which I have not yet managed to collect, although I have already devoted a day-and-a-half of my valuable time to the purpose." "But why do you come to me?" "What! Do you ask me that again?" "I--I--mean," stammered Grobstock--"why should I contribute to a Portuguese Synagogue?" Manasseh clucked his tongue in despair of such stupidity. "It is just you who should contribute more than any Portuguese." "I?" Grobstock wondered if he was awake. "Yes, you. Was not the money spent in honour of the marriage of a German Jew? It was a splendid vindication of your community." "This is too much!" cried Grobstock, outraged and choking. "Too much to mark the admission to our fold of the first of your sect! I am disappointed in you, deeply disappointed. I thought you would have applauded my generous behaviour." "I don't care what you thought!" gasped Grobstock. He was genuinely exasperated at the ridiculousness of the demand, but he was also pleased to find himself preserving so staunch a front against the insidious _Schnorrer_. If he could only keep firm now, he told himself, he might emancipate himself for ever. Yes, he would be strong, and Manasseh should never dare address him again. "I won't pay a stiver," he roared. "If you make a scene I will withdraw," said Manasseh quietly. "Already there are ears and eyes turned upon you. From your language people will be thinking me a dun and you a bankrupt." "They can go to the devil!" thundered Grobstock, "and you too!" "Blasphemer! You counsel me to ask the devil to contribute to the Synagogue! I will not bandy words with you. You refuse, then, to contribute to this fund?" "I do, I see no reason." "Not even the five pounds I vowed on behalf of Yankelé himself--one of your own people?" "What! I pay in honour of Yankelé--a dirty _Schnorrer_!" "Is this the way you speak of your guests?" said Manasseh, in pained astonishment. "Do you forget that Yankelé has broken bread at your table? Perhaps this is how you talk of me when my back is turned. But, beware! Remember the saying of our sages, 'You and I cannot live in the world,' said God to the haughty man. Come, now! No more paltering or taking refuge in abuse. You refuse me this beggarly five pounds?" "Most decidedly." "Very well, then!" Manasseh called the attendant.