As long as we keep to
ourselves we are a power. Persecution,--and sometimes it amounts
to that--is better than amalgamation; it brings out our better
fighting qualities and makes us rely on ourselves. This is the
view of our best thinkers, and they are right. Just hear me run
on! Why talk about these things? They are for graybeards, not
young fellows with the world before them." Cohen straightened up--
laid his glass on the small table, waved his hand in denial to
Peter who started to refill it, and continued, turning to Jack:
"And now let me hear something about your own work, Mr. Breen," he
said in his kindest and most interested voice. "Mr. Grayson tells
me you are cutting a great tunnel. Under a mountain, is it not?
Ah!--that is something worth doing. And here is this old uncle of
yours with his fine clothes and his old wine, who does nothing but
pore over his musty bank-books, and here am I in the cellar below,
who can only sew on buttons, and yet we have the impudence to
criticise you. Really, I never heard of such conceit!"
"Oh!--but it isn't my tunnel," Jack eagerly protested, greatly
amused at the Jew's talk; "I am just an assistant, Mr.
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