122 THE OPPERMANNS he knows is true. But since my nephew has voiced such a statement, I should not care to advise hirn to deny it and, in addition, to apologize for it." He sat up erect, his face forbid- ding and arrogant. He looked very large when sitting down. "Just like Goethe that way," thought Franccis. Little Thun- dercloud would be vexed, he continued, mentally. But he could assure her, with a clear conscience, that he had done his best. Moreover, he approved of his friend Gustav's attitude. Both men were glad when they were able to rise from table and go across to the library for their coffee. It was pleasant to talk here, in this fine room, of the eternal folly of mankind, deep as the sea, and its equally eternal defeat by intelligence. Gustav added the little book dealing with the "Protocols" to the other pamphlets in his collection. He took out, smiling, the Leader's book, My Bastle, wh ich stood rather ne ar to the "Pro- tocols," and read some particularly juicy passages to his friend. Rector Franccis covered his ears. He did not want to listen to the incorrect, distorted German of the book. Gustav spoke to him soothingly. On account of his repugnance for the style, he had evidently missed the comic quality of the content. He re- fused to be dissuaded from quoting a few passages: "'The vileness of the [ew is so gigantic,'" he read, "'that it should astonish no one if, to the German mind, the incarnation of the Devil and all that is evil assumes the shape of a [ew.' . .. 'It was the [ew and it still is the Jew who brings the Negro to the Rhine with the objeet of destroying the hated white race by the resultant mingling of bloods, to cast the white man down from his cultural and political eminence and to set him- self up as master.' ••• 'The Jews,'" he read, "'do not wish to establish a Jewish State in Palestine in order to inhabit it, all they want is a centre, in which they shall be free to exercise sovereign rights, for the organization of their international crook activities, arefuge for convieted scoundrels and a high-