nehemiah's voice bade him walk in, and turning the door-handle he saw the top-hatted figure sprawled in solitary gloom along a caneless chair, reading a newspaper by the twinkle of a rushlight. nehemiah sprang up with a bark of joy, making his gigantic shadow bow to the visitor. from chimney-pot to coat-tail he stretched unchanged, and the same celestial rapture illumined his gaunt visage.
but barstein drew back his own coat-tail from the attempted kiss.
'where is the gas?' he asked drily.
'alas, the company removed the meter.'
'but the gas-brackets?'
'what else had we to eat?' said nehemiah simply.
barstein in sudden suspicion raised his eyes to the [238]ceiling. but a fragment of gaspipe certainly came through it. he could not, however, recall whether the pipe had been there before or not.
'so the young men would not come?' he said.
'oh yes, they came, and they read, and they ate. only they did not pay.'
'you should have made it a rule—cash down.'
again a fine shade of rebuke and astonishment crossed his lean and melancholy visage.
'and could i oppress a brother-in-israel? where had those young men to turn but to me?'
again barstein felt his angelic reputation imperilled. he hastened to change the conversation.
'and why do you want to go to bursia?' he said.
'why shall i want to go to bursia?' nehemiah replied.
'you said so.' barstein showed him the letter.
'ah, i said i shall sooner go to bursia than to russia. always sir asher aaronsberg speaks of sending us back to russia.'
'he would,' said barstein grimly. 'but where is bursia?'
nehemiah shrugged his shoulders. 'shall i know? my little rebeccah was drawing a map thereof; she won a prize of five pounds with which we lived two months. a genial child is my rebeccah.'
'ah, then, the almighty did send you something.'
'and do i not trust him?' said nehemiah fervently. 'otherwise, burdened down as i am with a multitude of children——'
'you made your own burden,' barstein could not help pointing out.
again that look of pain, as if nehemiah had [239]caught sight of feet of clay beneath barstein's shining boots.
'"be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,"' nehemiah quoted in hebrew. 'is not that the very first commandment in the bible?'
'well, then, you want to go to turkey,' said the sculptor evasively. 'i suppose you mean palestine?'
'no, turkey. it is to turkey we zionists should ought to go, there to work for palestine. are not many of the sultan's own officials jews? if we can make of them hot-hearted zionists——'
it was an arresting conception, and barstein found himself sitting on the table to discuss it. the reverence with which nehemiah listened to his views was touching and disconcerting. barstein felt humbled by the celestial figure he cut in nehemiah's mental mirror. yet he could not suspect the man of a glozing tongue, for of the leaders of zionism nehemiah spoke with, if possible, greater veneration, with an awe trembling on tears. his elongated figure grew even gaunter, his lean visage unearthlier, as he unfolded his plan for the conquest of palestine, and barstein's original impression of his simple sincerity was repeated and re-enforced.
presently, however, it occurred to barstein that nehemiah himself would have scant opportunity of influential contact with ottoman officials, and that the real question at issue was, how nehemiah, his wife, and his 'at least eleven children,' were to be supported in turkey. he mentioned the point.
nehemiah waved it away. 'and cannot the almighty support us in turkey as well as in england?' he asked. 'yes, even in bursia itself the guardian of israel is not sleepy.'
[240]it was then that the word 'luftmensch' flew into barstein's mind. nehemiah was not an earth-man in gross contact with solidities. he was an air-man, floating on facile wings through the ?ther. true, he spoke of troublesome tribulations, but these were mainly dictionary distresses, felt most keenly in the rhapsody of literary composition. at worst they were mere clouds on the blue. they had nothing in common with the fogs which frequently veiled heaven from his own vision. never for a moment had nehemiah failed to remember the blue, never had he lost his radiant outlook. his very pessimism was merely optimism in disguise, since it was only a personal pessimism to be remedied by 'a few frivolous pounds,' by a new crumb from the hand of providence, not that impersonal despair of the scheme of things which gave the thinker such black moments. how had nehemiah lived during those first ten years in england? who should say? but he had had the wild daring to uproot himself from his childhood's home and adventure himself upon an unknown shore, and there, by hook or crook, for better or for worse, through vicissitudes innumerable and crises beyond calculation, ever on the perilous verge of nothingness, he had scraped through the days and the weeks and the years, fearlessly contributing perhaps more important items to posterity than the dead stones, which were all he, the sculptor, bade fair to leave behind him. welcoming each new child with feasting and psalmody, never for a moment had nehemiah lost his robustious faith in life, his belief in god, man, or himself.
yes, even deeper than his own self-respect was his [241]respect for others. an impenetrable idealist, he lived surrounded by a radiant humanity, by men become as gods. with no conscious hyperbole did he address one as 'angel.' intellect and goodness were his pole-stars. and what airy courage in his mundane affairs, what invincible resilience! he had once been a dentist, and he still considered himself one. before he owned a tablecloth he deemed himself the proprietor of a restaurant. he enjoyed alike the pleasures of anticipation and of memory, and having nothing, glided ever buoyantly between two gilded horizons. the superficial might call him shiftless, but more profoundly envisaged, was he not rather an education in the art of living? did he not incarnate the great jewish gospel of the improvident lilies?
'you shall not go to bursia,' said barstein in a burst of artistic fervour. 'thirteen people cannot possibly get there for fifteen pounds or even twenty-five pounds, and for such a sum you could start a small business here.'
nehemiah stared at him. 'god's messenger!' was all he could gasp. then the tall melancholy man raised his eyes to heaven, and uttered a hebrew voluntary in which references to the ram whose horns were caught in the thicket to save isaac's life were distinctly audible.
barstein waited patiently till the pious lips were at rest.
'but what business do you think you——?' he began.
'shall i presume dictation to the angel?' asked nehemiah with wet shining eyes.
'i am thinking that perhaps we might find something [242]in which your children could help you. how old is the eldest?'
'i will ask my wife. salome!' he cried. the dismal creature trotted in.
'how old is moshelé?' he asked.
'and don't you remember he was twelve last tabernacles?'
nehemiah threw up his long arms. 'merciful heaven! he must soon begin to learn his parshah (confirmation portion). what will it be? where is my chumash (pentateuch)?' mrs. silvermann drew it down from the row of ragged books, and nehemiah, fluttering the pages and bending over the rushlight, became lost to the problem of his future.
barstein addressed himself to the wife. 'what business do you think your husband could set up here?'
'is he not a dentist?' she inquired in reply.
barstein turned to the busy peering flutterer.
'would you like to be a dentist again?'
'ah, but how shall i find achers?'
'you put up a sign,' said barstein. 'one of those cases of teeth. i daresay the landlady will permit you to put it up by the front door, especially if you take an extra room. i will buy you the instruments, furnish the room attractively. you will put in your newspapers—why, people will be glad to come as to a reading-room!' he added smiling.
nehemiah addressed his wife. 'did i not say he was a genteel archangel?' he cried ecstatically.
