that simon should enter his father's business was as inevitable as that the business should prosper in spite of simon.
his career had been settled ere his father became aware that highbury aspired even to law and medicine, and the idea that simon's education was finished was not lightly to be dislodged. simon's education consisted of the knowledge conveyed in seaport schools for the sons of tradesmen, while a long course of penny dreadfuls had given him a peculiar and extensive acquaintance with the ways of the world. carefully curtained away in a secret compartment, lay his elementary hebrew lore. it did not enter into his conception of the perfect englishman. ah, how he rejoiced in this wider horizon of london, so thickly starred with music-halls, billiard-rooms, and [55]restaurants! 'we are emancipated now,' was his cry: 'we have too much intellect to keep all those old laws;' and he swallowed the forbidden oyster in a fine spiritual glow, which somehow or other would not extend to bacon. that stuck more in his throat, and so was only taken in self-defence, to avoid the suspicions of a convivial company.
as he sat at his father's side in the synagogue—a demure son of the covenant—this young englishman lurked beneath his praying-shawl, even as beneath his prayer-book had lurked 'the pirates of pechili.'
in this hidden life mrs. s. cohn was not an aider or abettor, except in so far as frequent gifts from her own pocket-money might be considered the equivalent of the surreptitious cake of childhood. she would have shared in her husband's horror had she seen simon banqueting on unrighteousness, and her apoplexy would have been original, not derivative. for her, indeed, london had proved narrowing rather than widening. she became part of a parish instead of part of a town, and of a ghetto in a parish at that! the vast background of london was practically a mirage—the london suburb was farther from london than the provincial town. no longer did the currents of civic life tingle through her; she sank entirely to family affairs, excluded even from the ladies' committee. her lord's life, too, shrank, though his business extended—the which, uneasily suspected, did but increase his irritability. he had now the pomp and pose of his late offices minus any visible reason: a sir oracle without a shrine, an abdomen without authority.
even the two new sons-in-law whom his ability to [56]clothe them had soon procured in london, listened impatiently, once they had safely passed under the canopy and were ensconced in plush parlours of their own. home and shop became his only realm, and his autocratic tendencies grew the stronger by compression. he read 'the largest circulation,' and his wife became an echo of its opinions. these opinions, never nebulous, became sharp as illuminated sky-signs when the boer war began.
'the impertinent rascals!' cried s. cohn furiously. 'they have invaded our territory.'
'is it possible?' ejaculated mrs. cohn. 'this comes of our kindness to them after majuba!'
