"Mr. Adeler, yes. What a singular man! Do you know, Dick, in spite of father's ideas respecting our old English aristocracy, I have sometimes felt, in Mr. Adeler's presence, that he, though a Jew, was a thousand times more of an aristocrat than I?" Haredale glanced at her oddly. "I have at times been conscious of a similar feeling!" he said. "No doubt one's instincts are true enough. Adeler's pedigree conceivably may go back to Jewish nobles who entertained monarchs in their marble palaces when the Eversheds and Haredales considered several streaks of red ochre an adequate costume for the most important functions." He laughed boyishly at his own words. "Oh, Dick!" said Mary. "How absurd of you. It is impossible to imagine an Evershed in such a condition. But yet, you are right. How singular that most people should overlook so obvious a fact; that there is a Jewish aristocracy, possibly one of the most ancient in the world." "The Jews are an Eastern people," replied Haredale. "That is the fact which is generally overlooked. They are, excepting one, the most remarkable people in the modern world." "Do you know," said the girl, unconsciously lowering her voice, "I have sometimes thought that Severac Bablon was in some way connected----" "Yes?" "With the ancient history of the Jews!" "What do you mean exactly?" "I can hardly explain. But at the Rohscheimers, on the night of the ball, Severac Bablon was masked, of course; yet it seemed to me----" "Mary," interrupted Haredale, "don't tell me that you believe the romantic stories circulating about the man!" "What stories, Dick?" "Why, about his holding the Seal of Suleyman, whatever that may be----" "But Mrs. Elschild says he _does_!" Haredale started. "How can she possibly know?" A flush tinged Lady Mary's clear complexion for a moment, and left it paler than it was wont to be. She despised a woman who could not preserve a secret (and therefore must have had a poor opinion of her sex), yet she had nearly allowed her own tongue to betray her. Whatever Mrs. Elschild had told her had been told in confidence, and under the seal of friendship. "Perhaps she does not know. Someone may have told her." "It's all over London," said Haredale; "in the clubs, everywhere! I wonder you have not heard it before. There seems to be an organised attempt to glorify this man, who, after all, is no more than an up-to-date highwayman. Someone has spread the absurd story that he is of Jewish royal blood; whereas the royal line of the Jews must have been extinct for untold generations!" "Why must it? You have just said that the Jews are an Eastern people. And all Eastern peoples are subtle and secretive. I invariably lose half of my self-importance in Egypt, for instance. There is something in the eye of the meanest _fellah_ which is painfully like patronage!" Haredale shrugged his shoulders.