Walpole.  You didnt appreciate his drawing, I think.

Schutzmacher.  Oh yes I did.  I should have liked very much to have kept the sketch and got it autographed.

B. B. But why didnt you?

Schutzmacher.  Well, the fact is, when I joined Dubedat after his conversation with Mr Walpole, he said the Jews were the only people who knew anything about art, and that though he had to put up with your Philistine twaddle, as he called it, it was what I said about the drawings that really pleased him.  He also said that his wife was greatly struck with my knowledge, and that she always admired Jews.  Then he asked me to advance him 50 pounds on the security of the drawings.

B. B. { [All } No, no.  Positively!  Seriously! 
Walpole { exclaiming } What!  Another fifty! 
Blenkinsop { together] } Think of that! 
Sir Patrick { } [grunts]!

Schutzmacher.  Of course I couldnt lend money to a stranger like that.

B. B. I envy you the power to say No, Mr Schutzmacher.  Of course, I knew I oughtnt to lend money to a young fellow in that way; but I simply hadnt the nerve to refuse.  I couldnt very well, you know, could I?

Schutzmacher.  I dont understand that.  I felt that I couldnt very well lend it.

Walpole.  What did he say?

Schutzmacher.  Well, he made a very uncalled-for remark about a Jew not understanding the feelings of a gentleman.  I must say you Gentiles are very hard to please.  You say we are no gentlemen when we lend money; and when we refuse to lend it you say just the same.  I didnt mean to behave badly.  As I told him, I might have lent it to him if he had been a Jew himself.

Sir Patrick [with a grunt] And what did he say to that?

Schutzmacher.  Oh, he began trying to persuade me that he was one of the chosen people—­that his artistic faculty shewed it, and that his name was as foreign as my own.  He said he didnt really want 50 pounds; that he was only joking; that all he wanted was a couple of sovereigns.

B. B. No, no, Mr Schutzmacher.  You invented that last touch.  Seriously, now?

Schutzmacher.  No.  You cant improve on Nature in telling stories about gentlemen like Mr Dubedat.

Blenkinsop.  You certainly do stand by one another, you chosen people, Mr Schutzmacher.

Schutzmacher.  Not at all.  Personally, I like Englishmen better than Jews, and always associate with them.  Thats only natural, because, as I am a Jew, theres nothing interesting in a Jew to me, whereas there is always something interesting and foreign in an Englishman.  But in money matters it’s quite different.  You see, when an Englishman borrows, all he knows or cares is that he wants money; and he’ll sign anything to get it, without in the least understanding it, or intending to carry