Israelites alone were invited. The only exceptions were Madame Wtorkowska and her daughter, as was very natural. Many Jews, for fear of being accused of superstition and ridicule, excused themselves at the last moment, feigning indisposition.
The room was large and commodious. It had no Jewish features, for the master of the house lived in European style, although without luxury. Ostentation was nowhere to be seen in the dwelling of this descendant of Levi, who, with all his boasting of his biblical nobility, was really an honest and a modest man and a good Polish citizen.
That evening Madame Bartold had put her children to bed at an early hour. She was dressed in good taste, and took great care that nothing should be wanting in any direction.
The ladies were in the minority,--Madame Wtorkowska, Emusia, Mathilde, and two others. Among the men were missing Mann and Mathilde's father, who thought all this Hebrew nonsense the issue of a diseased imagination. Kruder was there, for he desired admittance to all reunions. Ivas also, and Wilk, who sought everywhere converts to the revolutionary cause. Henri had come, ostensibly to escort his wife, but really to converse freely with Muse. He often visited her; but her mother was always present, and she frequently took advantage of his attentions to her daughter to borrow money of the gallant visitor, whose passion disposed him to pecuniary sacrifices.
At nine o'clock the room was full. Madame Bartold, crimson with fatigue, and redder still with timidity, sought to give every one a seat.
On a table loaded with books was a carafe of water, a glass, and some sugar. All awaited the lecturer.
They commenced by serving tea to the company; then Jacob appeared. A solemn silence indicated that his audience was prepared to listen attentively. Not being accustomed to speaking in public, he looked around him, and commenced in a weak and hesitating voice, which gradually grew stronger.
"Ladies and Gentlemen: It is not without apprehension that as a Jew I present myself before Jews, many of whom blush for their origin; before Jews who know the history of France and England better than their own history; before Jews who know more of Sanscrit literature than of the Bible. From all sides we have been reproached for our spirit of retirement and of separation. We have been constrained to it, and the fault was not with us. How much more justly could men to-day make the merited reproach of our having ceased to be ourselves, and of losing our own identity without identifying ourselves with others. We are here in continual antagonism with the country we inhabit, to which many ties should unite us. It appears that even that does not suffice us, and we have divorced ourselves from our own past.
"It is this past, with its poetry, that I would recall to you; for the time has come to appreciate it, and I wish to show you some of its characteristic beauties.
"Without culling here and there detached fragments of this treasure, I prefer to relate to you the entire life of a man who holds a place in sacred and legendary history. My hero is the celebrated Akiba.