She caught the lad by the hair and shook him violently. He groaned and shivered. Then he sank back into his serene trance. “Say!” cried Silas, stroking his stubbled chin as he looked thoughtfully at his son, “I think there is money in this if it is handled to rights. Wot about a turn on the halls, eh? ’The Boy Wonder or How is it Done?’ There’s a name for the bills. Then folk know his uncle’s name, so they will be able to take him on trust.” “I thought you was goin’ into the business yourself.” “That’s a wash-out,” snarled Silas. “Don’t you talk of it. It’s finished.” “Been caught out already?” “I tell you not to talk about it, woman!” the man shouted. “I’m just in the mood to give you the hidin’ of your life, so don’t you get my goat, or you’ll be sorry.” He stepped across and pinched the boy’s arm with all his force. “By Cripes, he’s a wonder! Let us see how far it will go.” He turned to the sinking fire and with the tongs he picked out a half-red ember. This he placed on the boy’s head. There was a smell of burning hair, then of roasting flesh, and suddenly, with a scream of pain, the boy came back to his senses. “Mother! Mother!” he cried. The girl in the corner took up the cry. They were like two lambs bleating together. “Damn your mother!” cried the woman, shaking Margery by the collar of her frail black dress. “Stop squallin’, you little stinker!” She struck the child with her open hand across the face. Little Willie ran at her and kicked her shins until a blow from Silas knocked him into the corner. The brute picked up a stick and lashed the two cowering children, while they screamed for mercy, and tried to cover their little bodies from the cruel blows. “You stop that!” cried a voice in the passage. “It’s that blasted Jewess!” said the woman. She went to the kitchen door. “What the ’ell are you doing in our ’ouse? ’Op it, quick, or it will be the worse for you!” “If I hear them children cry out once more, I’m off for the police.” “Get out of it! ’Op it, I tell you!” The frowsy stepmother bore down in full sail, but the lean, lank Jewess stood her ground. Next instant they met. Mrs. Silas Linden screamed, and staggered back with blood running down her face where four nails had left as many red furrows. Silas, with an oath, pushed his wife out of the way, seized the intruder round the waist, and slung her bodily through the door. She lay in the roadway with her long gaunt limbs sprawling about like some half-slain fowl. Without rising, she shook her clenched hands in the air and screamed curses at Silas, who slammed the door and left her, while neighbours ran from all sides to hear particulars of the fray. Mrs. Linden, staring through the front blind, saw with some relief that her enemy was able to rise and to limp back to her own door, whence she could be heard delivering a long shrill harangue as to her wrongs. The wrongs of a Jew are not lightly forgotten, for the race can both love and hate.