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Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People, a novel by Israel Zangwill |
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Book 2. The Grandchildren Of The Ghetto - Chapter 14. Sidney Settles Down |
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_ BOOK II. THE GRANDCHILDREN OF THE GHETTO CHAPTER XIV. SIDNEY SETTLES DOWN Mrs. Henry Goldsmith's newest seaside resort had the artistic charm which characterized everything she selected. It was a straggling, hilly, leafy village, full of archaic relics--human as well as architectural--sloping down to a gracefully curved bay, where the blue waves broke in whispers, for on summer days a halcyon calm overhung this magic spot, and the great sea stretched away, unwrinkled, ever young. There were no neutral tones in the colors of this divine picture--the sea was sapphire, the sky amethyst. There were dark-red houses nestling amid foliage, and green-haired monsters of gray stone squatted about on the yellow sand, which was strewn with quaint shells and mimic earth-worms, cunningly wrought by the waves. Half a mile to the east a blue river rippled into the bay. The white bathing tents which Mrs. Goldsmith had pitched stood out picturesquely, in harmonious contrast with the rich boscage that began to climb the hills in the background. Mrs. Goldsmith's party lived in the Manse; it was pretty numerous, and gradually overflowed into the bedrooms of the neighboring cottages. Mr. Goldsmith only came down on Saturday, returning on Monday. One Friday Mr. Percy Saville, who had been staying for the week, left suddenly for London, and next day the beautiful hostess poured into her husband's projecting ears a tale that made him gnash his projecting teeth, and cut the handsome stockbroker off his visiting-list for ever. It was only an indiscreet word that the susceptible stockbroker had spoken--under the poetic influences of the scene. His bedroom came in handy, for Sidney unexpectedly dropped down from Norway, _via_ London, on the very Friday. The poetic influences of the scene soon infected the newcomer, too. On the Saturday he was lost for hours, and came up smiling, with Addie on his arm. On the Sunday afternoon the party went boating up the river--a picturesque medley of flannels and parasols. Once landed, Sidney and Addie did not return for tea, prior to re-embarking. While Mr. Montagu Samuels was gallantly handing round the sugar, they were sitting somewhere along the bank, half covered with leaves, like babes in the wood. The sunset burned behind the willows--a fiery rhapsody of crimson and orange. The gay laughter of the picnic-party just reached their ears; otherwise, an almost solemn calm prevailed--not a bird twittered, not a leaf stirred. "It'll be all over London to-morrow," said Sidney in a despondent tone. "I'm afraid so," said Addie, with a delicious laugh. The sweet English meadows over which her humid eyes wandered were studded with simple wild-flowers. Addie vaguely felt the angels had planted such in Eden. Sidney could not take his eyes off his terrestrial angel clad in appropriate white. Confessed love had given the last touch to her intoxicating beauty. She gratified his artistic sense almost completely. But she seemed to satisfy deeper instincts, too. As he looked into her limpid, trustful eyes, he felt he had been a weak fool. An irresistible yearning to tell her all his past and crave forgiveness swept over him. "Addie," he said, "isn't it funny I should be marrying a Jewish girl, after all?" He wanted to work round to it like that, to tell her of his engagement to Miss Hannibal at least, and how, on discovering with whom he was really in love, he had got out of it simply by writing to the Wesleyan M.P. that he was a Jew--a fact sufficient to disgust the disciple of Dissent and the claimant champion of religious liberty. But Addie only smiled at the question. "You smile," he said: "I see you do think it funny." "That's not why I am smiling." "Then why are you smiling?" The lovely face piqued him; he kissed the lips quickly with a bird-like peck. "Oh--I--no, you wouldn't understand." "That means _you_ don't understand. But there! I suppose when a girl is in love, she's not accountable for her expression. All the same, it is strange. You know, Addie dear, I have come to the conclusion that Judaism exercises a strange centrifugal and centripetal effect on its sons--sometimes it repulses them, sometimes it draws them; only it never leaves them neutral. Now, here had I deliberately made up my mind not to marry a Jewess." "Oh! Why not?" said Addie, pouting. "Merely because she would be a Jewess. It's a fact." "And why have you broken your resolution?" she said, looking up naively into his face, so that the scent of her hair thrilled him. "I don't know." he said frankly, scarcely giving the answer to be expected. "_C'est plus fort que moi_. I've struggled hard, but I'm beaten. Isn't there something of the kind in Esther--in Miss Ansell's book? I know I've read it somewhere--and anything that's beastly subtle I always connect with her." "Poor Esther!" murmured Addie. Sidney patted her soft warm hand, and smoothed the finely-curved arm, and did not seem disposed to let the shadow of Esther mar the moment, though he would ever remain grateful to her for the hint which had simultaneously opened his eyes to Addie's affection for him, and to his own answering affection so imperceptibly grown up. The river glided on softly, glorified by the sunset. "It makes one believe in a dogged destiny," he grumbled, "shaping the ends of the race, and keeping it together, despite all human volition. To think that I should be doomed to fall in love, not only with a Jewess but with a pious Jewess! But clever men always fall in love with conventional women. I wonder what makes you so conventional, Addie." Addie, still smiling, pressed his hand in silence, and gazed at him in fond admiration. "Ah, well, since you are so conventional, you may as well kiss me." Addie's blush deepened, her eyes sparkled ere she lowered them, and subtly fascinating waves of expression passed across the lovely face. "They'll be wondering what on earth has become of us," she said. "It shall be nothing on earth--something in heaven," he answered. "Kiss me, or I shall call you unconventional." She touched his cheek hurriedly with her soft lips. "A very crude and amateur kiss," he said critically. "However, after all, I have an excuse for marrying you--which all clever Jews who marry conventional Jewesses haven't got--you're a fine model. That is another of the many advantages of my profession. I suppose you'll be a model wife, in the ordinary sense, too. Do you know, my darling, I begin to understand that I could not love you so much if you were not so religious, if you were not so curiously like a Festival Prayer-Book, with gilt edges and a beautiful binding." "Ah, I am so glad, dear, to hear you say that," said Addie, with the faintest suspicion of implied past disapproval. "Yes," he said musingly. "It adds the last artistic touch to your relation to me." "But you will reform!" said Addie, with girlish confidence. "Do you think so? I might commence by becoming a vegetarian--that would prevent me eating forbidden flesh. Have I ever told you my idea that vegetarianism is the first step in a great secret conspiracy for gradually converting the world to Judaism? But I'm afraid I can't be caught as easily as the Gentiles, Addie dear. You see, a Jewish sceptic beats all others. _Corruptio optimi pessima_, probably. Perhaps you would like me to marry in a synagogue?" "Why, of course! Where else?" "Heavens!" said Sidney, in comic despair. "I feared it would come to that. I shall become a pillar of the synagogue when I am married, I suppose." "Well, you'll have to take a seat," said Addie seriously, "because otherwise you can't get buried." "Gracious, what ghoulish thoughts for an embryo bride! Personally, I have no objection to haunting the Council of the United Synagogue till they give me a decently comfortable grave. But I see what it will be! I shall be whitewashed by the Jewish press, eulogized by platform orators as a shining light in Israel, the brilliant impressionist painter, and all that. I shall pay my synagogue bill and never go. In short, I shall be converted to Philistinism, and die in the odor of respectability. And Judaism will continue to flourish. Oh, Addie, Addie, if I had thought of all that, I should never have asked you to be my wife." "I am glad you didn't think of it," laughed Addie, ingenuously. "There! You never will take me seriously!" he grumbled. "Nobody ever takes me seriously--I suppose because I speak the truth. The only time you ever took me seriously in my life was a few minutes ago. So you actually think I'm going to submit to the benedictions of a Rabbi." "You must," said Addie. "I'll be blest If I do," he said. "Of course you will," said Addie, laughing merrily. "Thanks--I'm glad you appreciate my joke. You perhaps fancy it's yours. However, I'm in earnest. I won't be a respectable high-hatted member of the community--not even for your sake, dear. Why, I might as well go back to my ugly real name, Samuel Abrahams, at once." "So you might, dear," said Addie boldly, and smiled into his eyes to temper her audacity. "Ah, well, I think it'll be quite enough if _you_ change your name," he said, smiling back. "It's just as easy for me to change it to Abrahams as to Graham," she said with charming obstinacy. He contemplated her for some moments in silence, with a whimsical look on his face. Then he looked up at the sky--the brilliant color harmonies were deepening into a more sober magnificence. "I'll tell you what I will do. Ill join the Asmoneans. There! that's a great concession to your absurd prejudices. But you must make a concession to mine. You know how I hate the Jewish canvassing of engagements. Let us keep ours entirely _entre nous_ a fortnight--so that the gossips shall at least get their material stale, and we shall be hardened. I wonder why you're so conventional," he said again, when she had consented without enthusiasm. "You had the advantage of Esther--of Miss Ansell's society." "Call her Esther if you like; I don't mind," said Addie. "I wonder Esther didn't convert you," he went on musingly. "But I suppose you had Raphael on your right hand, as some prayer or other says. And so you really don't know what's become of her?" "Nothing beyond what I wrote to you. Mrs. Goldsmith discovered she had written the nasty book, and sent her packing. I have never liked to broach the subject myself to Mrs. Goldsmith, knowing how unpleasant it must be to her. Raphael's version is that Esther went away of her own accord; but I can't see what grounds he has for judging." "I would rather trust Raphael's version," said Sidney, with an adumbration of a wink in his left eyelid. "But didn't you look for her?" "Where? If she's in London, she's swallowed up. If she's gone to another place, it's still more difficult to find her." "There's the Agony Column!" "If Esther wanted us to know her address, what can prevent her sending it?" asked Addie, with dignity. "I'd find her soon enough, if I wanted to," murmured Sidney. "Yes; but I'm not sure we want to. After all, she cannot be so nice as I thought. She certainly behaved very ungratefully to Mrs. Goldsmith. You see what becomes of wild opinions." "Addie! Addie!" said Sidney reproachfully, "how _can_ you be so conventional?" "I'm _not_ conventional!" protested Addie, provoked at last. "I always liked Esther very much. Even now, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have her for a bridesmaid. But I can't help feeling she deceived us all." "Stuff and nonsense!" said Sidney warmly. "An author has a right to be anonymous. Don't you think I'd paint anonymously if I dared? Only, if I didn't put my name to my things no one would buy them. That's another of the advantages of my profession. Once make your name as an artist, and you can get a colossal income by giving up art." "It was a vulgar book!" persisted Addie, sticking to the point. "Fiddlesticks! It was an artistic book--bungled." "Oh, well!" said Addie, as the tears welled from her eyes, "if you're so fond of unconventional girls, you'd better marry them." "I would," said Sidney, "but for the absurd restriction against polygamy." Addie got up with an indignant jerk. "You think I'm a child to be played with!" She turned her back upon him. His face changed instantly; he stood still a moment, admiring the magnificent pose. Then he recaptured her reluctant hand. "Don't be jealous already, Addie," he said. "It's a healthy sign of affection, is a storm-cloud, but don't you think it's just a wee, tiny, weeny bit too previous?" A pressure of the hand accompanied each of the little adjectives. Addie sat down again, feeling deliriously happy. She seemed to be lapped in a great drowsy ecstasy of bliss. The sunset was fading into sombre grays before Sidney broke the silence; then his train of thought revealed itself. "If you're so down on Esther, I wonder how you can put up with me! How is it?" Addie did not hear the question. "You think I'm a very wicked, blasphemous boy," he insisted. "Isn't that the thought deep down in your heart of hearts?" "I'm sure tea must be over long ago," said Addie anxiously. "Answer me," said Sidney inexorably. "Don't bother. Aren't they cooeying for us?" "Answer me." "I do believe that was a water-rat. Look! the water is still eddying." "I'm a very wicked, blasphemous boy. Isn't that the thought deep down in your heart of hearts?" "You are there, too," she breathed at last, and then Sidney forgot her beauty for an instant, and lost himself in unaccustomed humility. It seemed passing wonderful to him--that he should be the deity of such a spotless shrine. Could any man deserve the trust of this celestial soul? Suddenly the thought that he had not told her about Miss Hannibal after all, gave him a chilling shock. But he rallied quickly. Was it really worth while to trouble the clear depths of her spirit with his turbid past? No; wiser to inhale the odor of the rose at her bosom, sweeter to surrender himself to the intoxicating perfume of her personality, to the magic of a moment that must fade like the sunset, already grown gray. So Addie never knew. _ |
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