“Quite so, quite so,” said the hostess.  Then turning to the tall thoughtful-looking young man who had hitherto contributed but one sentence to the conversation, she said, half in sly malice, half to draw him out:  “Now you, Mr. Leon, whose culture is certified by our leading university, what do you think of this latest portrait of the Jew?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t read it!” replied Raphael apologetically.

“No more have I,” murmured the table generally.

“I wouldn’t touch it with a pitchfork,” said Miss Cissy Levine.

“I think it’s a shame they circulate it at the libraries,” said Mrs. Montagu Samuels.  “I just glanced over it at Mrs. Hugh Marston’s house.  It’s vile.  There are actually jargon words in it.  Such vulgarity!”

“Shameful!” murmured Percy Saville; “Mr. Lazarus was telling me about it.  It’s plain treachery and disloyalty, this putting of weapons into the hands of our enemies.  Of course we have our faults, but we should be told of them privately or from the pulpit.”

“That would be just as efficacious,” said Sidney admiringly.

“More efficacious,” said Percy Saville, unsuspiciously.  “A preacher speaks with authority, but this penny-a-liner—­”

“With truth?” queried Sidney.

Saville stopped, disgusted, and the hostess answered Sidney half-coaxingly.

“Oh, I am sure you can’t think that.  The book is so one-sided.  Not a word about our generosity, our hospitality, our domesticity, the thousand-and-one good traits all the world allows us.”

“Of course not; since all the world allows them, it was unnecessary,” said Sidney.

“I wonder the Chief Rabbi doesn’t stop it,” said Mrs. Montagu Samuels.

“My dear, how can he?” inquired her husband.  “He has no control over the publishing trade.”

“He ought to talk to the man,” persisted Mrs. Samuels.

“But we don’t even know who he is,” said Percy Saville, “probably Edward Armitage is only a nom-de-plume.  You’d be surprised to learn the real names of some of the literary celebrities I meet about.”

“Oh, if he’s a Jew you may be sure it isn’t his real name,” laughed Sidney.  It was characteristic of him that he never spared a shot even when himself hurt by the kick of the gun.  Percy colored slightly, unmollified by being in the same boat with the satirist.

“I have never seen the name in the subscription lists,” said the hostess with ready tact.

“There is an Armitage who subscribes two guineas a year to the Board of Guardians,” said Mrs. Montagu Samuels.  “But his Christian name is George.”

“‘Christian’ name is distinctly good for ‘George,’” murmured Sidney.

“There was an Armitage who sent a cheque to the Russian Fund,” said Mr. Henry Goldsmith, “but that can’t be an author—­it was quite a large cheque!”

“I am sure I have seen Armitage among the Births, Marriages and Deaths,” said Miss Cissy Levine.