around those English guys and you thought they were going to take you right into the family, didn’t you?” he sneered. “You thought you were sittin’pretty, didn’t you? You were goin’to pal around with the Duke of What’s-His-Name and get invited home wit’him for the Christmas holidays and make a big play for his sister, weren’t you? Yes, you were!” He jeered, “You saw how far it got you, didn’t you? Those guys took you for a ride and played you for a sucker, an’when they’d had all the fun wit’you they could, they dropped you like a ton of bricks! You thought that you were pretty wise, didn’t you?” he snarled bitterly. “You thought that you were goin’places, didn’t you? You were goin’to do something big, you were! Well, I’ll tell you what you did! You handed them a laugh—see? You handed those guys a great big laugh—yes! a laugh!” he shouted violently. “And, I’ll tell you something else! They’re still laughin’at you! I saw you, Sterling. I know what you did. But you didn’t see me, did you? Couldn’t see me in those days, could you?”
“I can’t see you now,” said Sterling coldly. “I never could see you!”
“Is that so?” the Jew said bitterly. “Now, isn’t that too bad!… Well, I’ll tell you one time that you saw me, Sterling…. That’s when those guys had left you flat…. You could see me then, couldn’t you? You don’t remember, do you?” he jeered. “Well, I’ll tell you when it was…. It was when you came back here that year for the spring term and you found they didn’t know you when you went around. It was when your tail was dragging the ground and you didn’t have a friend in the world—you could see me then, all right. Couldn’t you?… I wasn’t good enough before when you were trying to break into High Society—but I was good enough to see after they gave you the big go-by, wasn’t I?… Sure! Sure!” he said with an air of derision, addressing himself more quietly now to the rest of the group. “I usta go by this guy when he was running around wit’his English friends—and did he see me?” he jibed savagely. “Not so you could notice it!…’Who is that common person who just spoke to you, Mr. Sterling?’'O, that! O, I cannot say, old chap—some low fellow that was on the boat wit’me when I came ovah!… Really cawn’t recall his name! A beastly boundah, I believe!’… Sure! Sure!” he nodded. “That was it! High-hattin’me, you know! I wasn’t good enough! And all the time these English guys were laughin’up their sleeve at him!”
They had been stunned by the snarling fury of his assault, silenced by the hypnotic compulsion of his dark, hard face, his feverish eyes, the rasping
