"In that case, my dear sir, you have heard many curious things about your race."
"Very curious, and I shall profit by them. As for your pleasantries, they have not wounded me. I could form some idea of how you spoke of us, by the way that we speak of you at our meetings. For compensation, you have finished by praising our qualities in such a manner as to make me very grateful. But your praises are more than we deserve. If we possess some good qualities, we have also many faults, and I ought to acknowledge them. This alliance with us seems repugnant to you; but, believe me, it will be for your advantage in the end. It is repugnant to you because, as some one here has said, we smell of garlic and old clothes; but just now you cannot have too many friends and allies."
"As true as I love God," cried Boakoam, "your morals are golden. But I do not believe that we can trust in your friendship. You will be with us as long as we are standing, but you will go over to the enemy when we fall. You will then feel only contempt for us, and the thirst for vengeance will awaken in your hearts."
"Never! I promise it in my name, and in the names of those who think as I do. We will remain united in misfortune as in fortune."
"So as to profit equally by our success or our misfortunes? I am frank, and now that we are on this subject, permit me to finish. I am ready to acknowledge my fault, to avow all the vices and all the errors imputed to the nobles, but I cannot see that your rich men are any better. You accuse us of foolish vanity and aristocratic pride; your bankers have as much. The Count André, who comes from a long line of illustrious ancestors, is much more polite, more affable, more simple, than"--
"I do not deny it. Money often renders men impertinent. I have only one excuse to offer for my co-religionists: it is, that repulsed by the elegant society, overwhelmed with sarcasm, we have not had the opportunity to profit by the same schooling as yourselves. You must civilize us by your good examples."
"Hear! Hear!" cried Boakoam. "We will teach you our refined manners in return for your practical spirit."
"I consent," replied Jacob smiling. "One word more: you have alluded to some of us as rude and having repulsive manners. Very well; even among these men, vain, proud, and gross, there are some who are benevolent; though their appearance does not indicate it. I have not finished. In the presence of the representatives of the past I know not whether I shall be permitted to express my ideas. Behold them, if you will be kind enough to listen. Humanity will not retrograde. She has ceased to be led by a privileged class; she feels her strength and will walk alone. The feudal privileges are dead, very dead."
"You avow, however," said the dark man with Oriental features, "that society, freed from privileges and belonging to itself, will still admit a certain division of classes."
"Yes; but admittance to these classes will be given by personal merit, and not by birth."