“We do not argue with possessed people!” cried Herschstein, whose forehead and cheeks were striped with livid lines.
“With whom do you argue, if you please?” Schleifmann vociferated. “With dross like yourself? For I tell you, in the words of Ezekiel: ‘You are all dross, all dross of brass, of lead, of iron; you are all dross of silver.... And the Lord shall precipitate you in the crucible to melt you under the breath of His anger!’”
He had given the Hebrew text. Now he gave it in German, and it was such a volley of harsh, thundering syllables that Pums began to take fright. What would the agents and the clerks in the hall nearby think of this noise? He decided to try audacity and said haltingly:
“That will do, M. Schleifmann!... Enough scandal!... I ask you to retire.... Shut up and get out, or damn it all, I will call the police!”
“Ah! that would complete the day!” Schleifmann exclaimed. “No! but do it; do it, so that I can laugh a little more!... Have me removed to the police station for a religious brawl!... Have me arrested!... Jeremiah was arrested twice.... Hamasiah also and Micah as well, and many others.... It is natural.... No, I stay right here, if only just to see it happen! The police!... Ha! ha!”
“He is mad, raving mad!” Pums murmured, his face convulsed.
“Not at all,” Herschstein said in an attempt at irony. “You have got it right.... He is a prophet, my friend, a great prophet!”
“Alas, no, M. Herschstein!” the Galician retorted simply. “I am too old; I have passed the age.... I regret it.... Until the social question is settled for everyone in a scientific fashion, as my master Karl Marx wished it, it would do you no harm to find, on Saturday at the Synagogue, instead of your rabbis who flatter you, a sort of Sophonia who would say to you: ‘Lament! ye dwellers in the market-place! All who traffic shall be....’”
Again the avalanche of Hebrew and German poured forth. Pums, his nerves overtaxed, closed his ears. Herschstein contracted his hand upon his Moses-like beard. Then a light of hope came to his anxious eyes. He had found an objection.
“What about the Christians?” he said victoriously. “Do the Christians traffic?”