'If you have such a power, you may be responsible for a very disagreeable dream I had in your synagogue the other day.'
'What was the dream?'
'Nay, if you created it you should be able to tell me what it was.'
'I have no idea what it was; if I influenced your imagination I did so unconsciously.'
There was about this Jew such a complete gentleness and repose, such earnestness without eagerness, such self-confidence without self-assertion, that the curate's heart warmed to him instinctively.
'I believe you are an honest Christian,' said the Jew very simply.
'I hope honest Christians are not rare.'
'I think a wholly honest man is very rare, because to see what is honest it is necessary to look at things without self-interest or desire.'
'I am certainly not such a man. The most I can say is that I try to be more honest every day.'
'That is very well said,' said the Jew. 'If you had believed in your own honesty, I should have doubted it.' Then, in a very simple and quiet way, he told the curate a strange story.