"Souchey, you had better go. You had indeed," said Nina. "We cannot feed you." Now Souchey had himself spoken of leaving them some days since, urged to do so by his Christian indignation at the abominable betrothal of his mistress. "You said the other day that you would do so, and it will be better."
"But I shall not."
"Then you will be starved."
"I am starved already, and it cannot be worse. I dined yesterday on what they threw out to the dogs in the meat-market."
"And where will you dine to-day?"
"Ah, I shall dine better to-day. I shall get a meal in the Windberg-ga.s.se."
"What! at my aunt"s house?"
"Yes; at your aunt"s house. They live well there, even in the kitchen.
Lotta will have for me some hot soup, a mess of cabbage, and a sausage.
I wish I could bring it away from your aunt"s house to the old man and yourself."
"I would sooner fall in the gutter than eat my aunt"s meat."
"That is all very fine for you, but I am not going to marry a Jewess.
Why should I quarrel with your aunt, or with Lotta Luxa? If you would give up the Jew, Nina, your aunt"s house would be open to you; yes--and Ziska"s house."
"I will not give up the Jew," said Nina, with flashing eyes.
"I suppose not. But what will you do when he gives you up? What if Ziska then should not be so forward?"
"Of all those who are my enemies, and whom I hate because they are so cruel, I hate Ziska the worst. Go and tell him so, since you are becoming one of them. In doing so much you cannot at any rate do me harm."
Then she took herself off, forgetting in her angry spirit the prudential motives which had induced her to begin the conversation with Souchey. But Souchey, though he was going to Madame Zamenoy"s house to get his dinner, and was looking forward with much eagerness to the mess of hot cabbage and the cold sausage, had by no means become "one of them" in the Windberg-ga.s.se. He had had more than one interview of late with Lotta Luxa, and had perceived that something was going on, of which he much desired to be at the bottom. Lotta had some scheme, which she was half willing and half unwilling to reveal to him, by which she hoped to prevent the threatened marriage between Nina and the Jew. Now Souchey was well enough inclined to take a part in such a scheme-- provided it did not in any way make him a party with the Zamenoys in things general against the Balatkas. It was his duty as a Christian-- though he himself was rather slack in the performance of his own religious duties--to put a stop to this horrible marriage if he could do so; but it behoved him to be true to his master and mistress, and especially true to them in opposition to the Zamenoys. He had in some sort been carrying on a losing battle against the Zamenoys all his life, and had some of the feelings of a martyr, telling himself that he had lost a rich wife by doing so. He would go on this occasion and eat his dinner and be very confidential with Lotta; but he would be very discreet, would learn more than he told, and, above all, would not betray his master or mistress.
Soon after he was gone, Anton Trendellsohn came over to the Kleinseite, and, ringing at the bell of the house, received admission from Nina herself. "What! you, Anton?" she said, almost jumping into his arms, and then restraining herself. "Will you come up? It is so long since I have seen you."
"Yes--it is long. I hope the time is soon coming when there shall be no more of such separation."
"Is it? Is it indeed?"
"I trust it is."
"I suppose as a maiden I ought to be coy, and say that I would prefer to wait; but, dearest love, sorrow and trouble have banished all that.
You will not love me less because I tell you that I count the minutes till I may be your wife."
"No; I do not love you less on that account. I would have you be true and faithful in all things."
Though the words themselves were a.s.suring, there was something in the tone of his voice which repressed her. "To you I am true and faithful in all things; as faithful as though you were already my husband. What were you saying of a time that is soon coming?"
He did not answer her question, but turned the subject away into another channel. "I have brought something for you," he said--"something which I hope you will be glad to have."
"Is it a present? she asked. As yet he had never given her anything that she could call a gift, and it was to her almost a matter of pride that she had taken nothing from her Jew lover, and that she would take nothing till it should be her right to take everything.
"Hardly a present; but you shall look at it as you will. You remember Rapinsky, do you not?" Now Rapinsky was the jeweller in the Grosser Ring, and Nina, though she well remembered the man and the shop, did not at the moment remember the name. "You will not have forgotten this at any rate," said Trendellsohn, bringing the necklace from out of his pocket.
"How did you get it?" said Nina, not putting out her hand to take it, but looking at it as it lay upon the table.
"I thought you would be glad to have it back again."
"I should be glad if--"
"If what? Will it be less welcome because it comes through my hands?"
"The man lent me money upon it, and you must have paid the money."
"What if I have? I like your pride, Nina; but be not too proud. Of course I have paid the money. I know Rapinsky, who deals with us often.
I went to him after you spoke to me, and got it back again. There is your mother"s necklace."
"I am sorry for this, Anton."
"Why sorry?"
"We are so poor that I shall be driven to take it elsewhere again. I cannot keep such a thing in the house while father wants. But better he should want than--"
"Than what, Nina?"
"There would be something like cheating in borrowing money on the same thing twice."
"Then put it by, and I will be your lender."
"No; I will not borrow from you. You are the only one in the world that I could never repay. I cannot borrow from you. Keep this thing, and if I am ever your wife, then you shall give it me."
"If you are ever my wife?"
"Is there no room for such an if? I hope there is not, Anton. I wish it were as certain as the sun"s rising. But people around us are so cruel!
It seems, sometimes, as though the world were against us. And then you, yourself--"
"What of me myself, Nina?"
"I do not think you trust me altogether; and unless you trust me, I know you will not make me your wife."
"That is certain; and yet I do not doubt that you will be my wife."
"But do you trust me? Do you believe in your heart of hearts that I know nothing of that paper for which you are searching?" She paused for a reply, but he did not at once make any. "Tell me," she went on saying, with energy, "are you sure that I am true to you in that matter, as in all others? Though I were starving--and it is nearly so with me already--and though I loved you beyond even all heaven, as I do, I do--I would not become your wife if you doubted me in any t.i.ttle.
Say that you doubt me, and then it shall be all over." Still he did not speak. "Rebecca Loth will be a fitter wife for you than I can be," said Nina.
"If you are not my wife, I shall never have a wife," said Trendellsohn.
In her ecstasy of delight, as she heard these words, she took up his hand and kissed it; but she dropped it again, as she remembered that she had not yet received the a.s.surance that she needed. "But you do believe me about this horrid paper?"
It was necessary that she should be made to go again through the fire.
In deliberate reflection he had made himself aware that such necessity still existed. It might be that she had some inner reserve as to duty towards her father. There was, possibly, some reason which he could not fathom why she should still keep something back from him in this matter. He did not, in truth, think that it was so, but there was the chance. There was the chance, and he could not bear to be deceived. He felt a.s.sured that Ziska Zamenoy and Lotta Luxa believed that this deed was in Nina"s keeping. Indeed, he was a.s.sured that all the household of the Zamenoys so believed. "If there be a G.o.d above us, it is there,"
Lotta had said, crossing herself. He did not think it was there; he thought that Lotta was wrong, and that all the Zamenoys were wrong, by some mistake which he could not fathom; but still there was the chance, and Nina must be made to bear this additional calamity.