interested about them than about the life of the celebrated Mendelssohn."

Is that possible! said his looks of genuine surprised simplicity. He
thanked me, and told me that he was much better in the world than formerly;
that a good friend of his, a London jeweller of his own tribe, who had
employed him as a pedlar, and had been satisfied with his conduct, had
assisted him through his difficulties. This was the last time he should go
his rounds in England as a pedlar; he said he was going into another and a
much better way of business. His friend, the London jeweller, had
recommended him to his brother, a rich Israelite, who had a valuable store
in Gibraltar, and who wanted a young man to assist him, on whom he could
entirely depend. Jacob was going out to Gibraltar in the course of the next
week. "And now, Mr. Harrington," said he, changing his tone and speaking
with effort, as if he were conquering some inward feeling, "now it is all
over, Mr. Harrington, and that I am leaving England, and perhaps may never
see you again; I wish before I take leave of you, to tell you, sir, who my
father was--_was_, for he is no more. I did not make a mystery of his name
merely to excite curiosity, as some of the young gentlemen thought, nor
because I was ashamed of my low birth. My father was Simon the old
clothes-man. I knew you would start, Mr. Harrington, at hearing his name. I
knew all that you suffered in your childhood about him, and I once heard
you say to Lord Mowbray who was taunting you with something about _old
Simon_, that you would not have that known, upon any account, to your
school-fellows, for that they would plague you for ever. From that moment I
was determined that _I_ would never be the cause of recalling or publishing
what would be so disagreeable to you. This was the reason why I persisted
in refusing to tell my father's name, when Lord Mowbray pressed me so to
declare it before all your school-fellows. And now, I hope," concluded he,
"that Mr. Harrington will not hate poor Jacob, though he is the son of--"