Dan sat looking into the dusk asking himself if his bargain were not that his son should learn the Greek language but not Greek literature, which is full of heresy, he said to himself; and he returned home determined to raise the point; but Joseph told him, and he thought rather abruptly, that it was only through Greek literature that one could learn Greek in Tiberias—­the spoken language was a dialect.

It may have been that Joseph perceived that praise of Azariah caused his father to writhe a little, and—­curious to observe the effect—­he spoke more of Azariah than he would have done otherwise, and laid an accent on his master’s learning, and related incidents in which his master appeared to great advantage, causing his father much perplexity and pain of mind, till at last, unable to bear the torture any longer, he said—­the words slipped from him incontinently—­you’re no better than a little Azariah! and, unable to contain himself, he rushed from the room, leaving Joseph and Rachel to discuss his vehemence and discover motives which he hoped would not include the right one.  But afraid that he had betrayed his jealousy of Azariah he returned, and to mislead his mother and son he began to speak of the duty of the pupil to the master, telling Joseph he must submit himself to Azariah in everything:  by representing Azariah as one in full authority he hoped to overcome his influence and before many months had passed over a different accent was notable in Joseph’s voice when he spoke of Azariah; but he continued with him for two more years.  And it was then that Dan set himself to devise plans to end his son’s studies in Hebrew and Greek.

Joseph knows now all that Azariah can teach him, and it is high time that I took him in hand and taught him his trade.  But though determined to rid himself of Azariah he felt he must proceed gently (if possible, in conjunction with his mother); he must wait for an occasion; and while he was watching for one it fell out that Joseph wearied of Azariah and went to his father saying that he had learnt Hebrew and could speak Greek, so there was no use in his returning to Azariah any more.  At first his parents could only think that he had; quarrelled with Azariah, but it was not so, they soon discovered that he had merely become tired of him—­a change that betokened a capricious mind.  A growing boy is full of fancies, Rachel said:  an explanation that Dan deemed sufficient, and he was careful not to speak against Azariah lest he should turn his son’s thoughts back on Greek literature, or Greek philosophy, which is more pernicious even than the literature.  He did not dare to ask Joseph to come down to the counting-house, afraid lest by trying to influence him in one direction he might influence him in the opposite direction.  He deemed it better to leave everything to fate, and while putting his trust in God Dan applied himself to meditate on the young man’s character and his tastes, which seemed to have taken a sudden turn;