"One never knows why in these times. I bring you a passport. I procured it yesterday, before the authorities at the chateau had warned the police against passports. Come, do not tarry!"
"Where shall I go?"
"Where you will."
"Would it not be possible for me to wait, and prove myself innocent?"
"You jest! They would answer you by sending you to the extreme borders of the Russian empire. They are doing it every day."
"Be it so! They would send me back."
"And you would submit to Russian brutality when you can avoid it?"
"To leave my country at such a supreme moment would be to compromise my Israelite acquaintances, which Mann has recently reproached me for. I would be accused also of cowardly motives, of excessive prudence, of calculating egotism, and my flight would justify the accusation."
"The moments are precious. Keep yourself for better times. Captivity would ruin you, and unfit you for the future. The insurrection is strengthening. No one can foresee the result. European diplomacy may interfere. It is true that the uprising is premature, but it is possible that this time they may obtain some concessions. You can be useful to us. Keep your intelligence, your relations, and your fortune for Poland."
"Intelligence falsified by mysticism. Every one says 'relations,' but with whom? My ideas are always in contradiction with those around me; there remains to me only a fortune. Alone, whom can I serve?"