'Madam!' said the Jew in utmost surprise.
'Consider how wrong such a superstition is,' she said. 'What virtue can there be in a stone, or a piece of metal, or an inscription? None. They are as dead and powerless as the idols of the heathen; and to put the faith in any such thing that we ought to put in God's providence, is to dishonour Him. It grieves me to think that you, or any other intelligent man, could believe in such a superstition.'
'Madam,' said the Jew again, 'these things are as we think of them. You think one way and I another.'
'But you think wrongly. I would have you see your error, and turn from it. Can you believe in the Christian faith and yet——'
'I am a Jew,' he said.
'A Jew!' she exclaimed. She began to preach against that error also; entering into a long argument in a dull dogmatic way, but with an earnestness which held the two men irresolute with wonder and surprise.
'It would seem, madam,' said the Jew, after she had talked much, 'that you desire greatly to set an erring world to rights again.'
'And should we not all desire that?' she asked, unconscious of the irony. 'For what else are we placed in the world but to pass on to others the light that God has entrusted to us?'
'I verily believe, madam,' said he seriously, 'that you think exactly what you say, and that you desire greatly to do me good. But, putting these questions aside, will you tell me if you have this ornament which I venerate?'
'Yes, I have it.'