
    »You must have been used to public speaking. You speak uncommonly well,
though I don't agree with you. From what you said about sentiment, I fancy you
are a Panslavist.«
    »No; my name is Elijah. I am the Wandering Jew,« said Klesmer, flashing a
smile at Miss Arrowpoint, and suddenly making a mysterious wind-like rush
backwards and forwards on the piano. Mr. Bult felt this buffoonery rather
offensive and Polish, but - Miss Arrowpoint being there - did not like to move
away.
    »Herr Klesmer has cosmopolitan ideas,« said Miss Arrowpoint, trying to make
the best of the situation. »He looks forward to a fusion of races.«
    »With all my heart,« said Mr. Bult, willing to be gracious. »I was sure he
had too much talent to be a mere musician.«
    »Ah, sir, you are under some mistake there,« said Klesmer, firing up. »No
man has too much talent to be a musician. Most men have too little. A creative
artist is no more a mere musician than a great statesman is a mere politician.
We are not ingenious puppets, sir, who live in a box and look out on the world
only when it is gaping for amusement. We help to rule the nations and make the
age as much as any other public men. We count ourselves on level benches with
legislators. And a man who speaks effectively through music is compelled to
something more difficult than parliamentary eloquence.«
    With the last word Klesmer wheeled from the piano and walked away.
    Miss Arrowpoint coloured, and Mr. Bult observed with his usual phlegmatic
stolidity, »Your pianist does not think small beer of himself.«
    »Herr Klesmer is something more than a pianist,« said Miss Arrowpoint,
apologetically. »He is a great musician in the fullest sense of the word. He
will rank with Schubert and Mendelssohn.«
    »Ah, you ladies understand these things,« said Mr. Bult, none the less
convinced that these things were frivolous because Klesmer had shown himself a
coxcomb.
    Catherine, always sorry when Klesmer gave himself airs, found an opportunity
the next day in the music-room to say, »Why were you so heated last night with
Mr. Bult? He meant no harm.«
    »You wish me to be complaisant to him?« said Klesmer, rather fiercely.
    »I think it is hardly worth your while to be other than civil.«
    »You find no difficulty in tolerating him, then? - you have
