[Content warning: Antisemitism]

"Oh..." Rose blushed. "I'd love ta, miss. Ye'r very kind. But I work on Saturdays. I work in t' house of this bachelor and he has this big dinner every Saturday." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "E's a Jew." She hadn't told father, because she didn't want him to tell her to stop working there.

"What day do you have free that isn't Sunday?" She didn't even blink at the whisper. "Oh... I heard the new teacher in town is Jewish, do you think they are related?"

"Only Sundays sometimes..." she said. She frowned. "They have a Jewish school now too? I didn't know there were so many Jewish children in town. As far as she was aware, she knew none.

"No, he was hired at one of the normal schools. I saw him the other day, big man and very nice." she said.

"Oh..." Rose's frowned deepened. Did that mean at a Christian school? Was he teaching her little brother? She was quite fascinated by Mr. Meijer's solemn determination to have his sabbat meal and everything it required, but she wasn't sure about how she felt about someone of a different religion teaching her little brother. She would ask. "What's his name, do you know?"

"Mister Uriel Meijer..." And there was a particular rumor going about that he was converting to be with the mother of his child. "He sounds like a very kind man, actually."

Rose grasped. "I work for a Mr. Meijer!" And it was certainly not he that would scoop down to teach poor children. He was a barrister. Rose wondered whether he had ever even taken up a poor person's case.

"Perhaps they are related?" she asked softly. "That sounds like an awfully big coincidence."

"Oh yes, they must be." And that meant the possibility of learning more about her employer's private life. "Have you met him?" she said, leaning on the table and looking at Pearl intently, and for once forgetting the class divine between them. There was one thing that could connect people of all walks of life - juicy gossip.

"Oh, no, but I have heard he came here months and months ago to start building his house. I have seen it and it is beautiful. I have never met the Meijer family personally." She paused and then lowered her voice, "What is the other one like?"