This question Ziska would not answer at once. The matter was one on which he wished to negotiate, and he was driven to the necessity of considering what might be the best line for his diplomacy. "I am sure, Ziska," continued Nina, "you will understand why I ask this. Father is too weak to make the demand, and uncle would listen to nothing that Anton Trendellsohn would say to him."
"They say that you have betrothed yourself to this Jew, Nina."
"It is true. But that has nothing to do with it."
"He is very anxious to have the deeds?"
"Of course he is anxious. Father is old and poorly; and what would he do if father were to die?"
"Nina, he shall have them--if he will give you up."
Nina turned away from her cousin and looked out from the window into the little court. Ziska could not see her face; but had he done so he would not have been able to read the smile of triumph with which for a moment or two it became brilliant. No; Anton would make no such bargain as that! Anton loved her better than any t.i.tle-deeds. Had he not told her that she was his sun--the sun that gave to him light and heat? "If they are his own, why should he be asked to make any such bargain?"
said Nina.
"Nina," said Ziska, throwing all his pa.s.sion into his voice, as he best knew how, "it cannot be that you should love this man."
"Why not love him?"
"A Jew!"
"Yes--a Jew! I do love him."
"Nina!"
"What have you to say, Ziska? Whatever you say, do not abuse him. It is my affair, not yours. You may think what you like of me for taking such a husband, but remember that he is to be my husband."
"Nina, let me be your husband."
"No, Ziska; that cannot be."
"I love you. I love you fifty times better than he can do. Is not a Christian"s love better than a Jew"s?"
"Because I do not love you. Can there be any other reason in such a matter? I do not love you. I do not care if I never see you. But him I love with all my heart. To see him is the only delight of my life. To sit beside him, with his hand in mine, and my head on his shoulder, is heaven to me. To obey him is my duty; to serve him is my pleasure. To be loved by him is the only good thing which G.o.d has given me on earth.
Now, Ziska, you will know why I cannot be your wife." Still she stood before him, and still she looked up into his face, keeping her gaze upon him even after her words were finished.
"Accursed Jew!" said Ziska.
"That is right, Ziska; curse him; it is so easy."
"And you too will be cursed--here and hereafter. If you marry a Jew you will be accursed to all eternity."
"That, too, is very easy to say."
"It is not I who say it. The priest will tell you the same."
"Let him tell me so; it is his business, but it is not yours. You say it because you cannot have what you want yourself; that is all. When shall I call in the Ross Markt for the papers?" In the Ross Markt was the house of business of Karil Zamenoy, and there, as Nina well knew, were kept the doc.u.ments which she was so anxious to obtain. But the demand at this moment was made simply with the object of vexing Ziska, and urging him on to further anger.
"Unless you will give up Anton Trendellsohn, you had better not come to the Ross Markt."
"I will never give him up."
"We will see. Perhaps he will give you up after a while. It will be a fine thing to be jilted by a Jew."
"The Jew, at any rate, shall not be jilted by the Christian. And now, if you please, I will ask you to go. I do not choose to be insulted in father"s house. It is his house still."
"Nina, I will give you one more chance."
"You can give me no chance that will do you or me any good. If you will go, that is all I want of you now."
For a moment or two Ziska stood in doubt as to what he would next do or say. Then he took up his hat and went away without another word. On that same evening some one rang the bell at the door of the house in the Windberg-ga.s.se in a most humble manner--with that weak, hesitating hand which, by the tone which it produces, seems to insinuate that no one need hurry to answer such an appeal, and that the answer, when made, may be made by the lowest personage in the house. In this instance, however, Lotta Luxa did answer the bell, and not the stout Bohemian girl who acted in the household of Madame Zamenoy as a.s.sistant and f.a.g to Lotta. And Lotta found Nina at the door, enveloped in her cloak. "Lotta," she said, "will you kindly give this to my cousin Ziska?" Then, not waiting for a word, she started away so quickly that Lotta had not a chance of speaking to her, no power of uttering an audible word of abuse. When Ziska opened the parcel thus brought to him, he found it to contain all the notes which he had given to Josef Balatka.
CHAPTER IV
When Nina returned to her father after Ziska"s departure, a very few words made everything clear between them. "I would not have him if there was not another man in the world," Nina had said. "He thinks that it is only Anton Trendellsohn that prevents it, but he knows nothing about what a girl feels. He thinks that because we are poor I am to be bought, this way or that way, by a little money. Is that a man, father, that any girl can love?" Then the father had confessed his receipt of the bank-notes from Ziska, and we already know to what result that confession had led.
Till she had delivered her packet into the hands of Lotta Luxa, she maintained her spirits by the excitement of the thing she was doing.
Though she should die in the streets of hunger, she would take no money from Ziska Zamenoy. But the question now was not only of her wants, but of her father"s. That she, for herself, would be justified in returning Ziska"s money there could be no doubt; but was she equally justified in giving back money that had been given to her father? As she walked to the Windberg-ga.s.se, still holding the parcel of notes in her hand, she had no such qualms of conscience; but as she returned, when it was altogether too late for repentance, she made pictures to herself of terrible scenes in which her father suffered all the pangs of want, because she had compelled him to part with this money. If she were to say one word to Anton Trendellsohn, all her trouble on that head would be over. Anton Trendellsohn would at once give her enough to satisfy their immediate wants. In a month or two, when she would be Anton"s wife, she would not be ashamed to take everything from his hand; and why should she be ashamed now to take something from him to whom she was prepared to give everything? But she was ashamed to do so. She felt that she could not go to him and ask him for bread. One other resource she had. There remained to her of her mother"s property a necklace, which was all that was left to her from her mother. And when this had been given to her at her mother"s death, she had been specially enjoined not to part with it. Her father then had been too deeply plunged in grief to say any words on such a subject, and the gift had been put into her hands by her aunt Sophie. Even aunt Sophie had been softened at that moment, and had shown some tenderness to the orphan child. "You are to keep it always for her sake," aunt Sophie had said; and Nina had hitherto kept the trinket, when all other things were gone, in remembrance of her mother. She had hitherto reconciled herself to keeping her little treasure, when all other things were going, by the sacredness of the deposit; and had told herself that even for her father"s sake she must not part with the gift which had come to her from her mother. But now she comforted herself by the reflection that the necklace would produce for her enough to repay her father that present from Ziska which she had taken from him. Her father had pleaded sorely to be allowed to keep the notes. In her emotion at the moment she had been imperative with him, and her resolution had prevailed. But she thought of his entreaties as she returned home, and of his poverty and wants, and she determined that the necklace should go. It would produce for her at any rate as much as Ziska had given. She wished that she had brought it with her, as she pa.s.sed the open door of a certain p.a.w.nbroker, which she had entered often during the last six months, and whither she intended to take her treasure, so that she might comfort her father on her return with the sight of the money. But she had it not, and she went home empty-handed. "And now, Nina, I suppose we may starve," said her father, whom she found sitting close to the stove in the kitchen, while Souchey was kneeling before it, putting in at the little open door morsels of fuel which were lamentably insufficient for the poor man"s purpose of raising a fire. The weather, indeed, was as yet warm--so warm that in the middle of the day the heat was matter of complaint to Josef Balatka; but in the evening he would become chill; and as there existed some small necessity for cooking, he would beg that he might thus enjoy the warmth of the kitchen.
"Yes, we shall starve now," said Souchey, complacently. "There is not much doubt about our starving."
"Souchey, I wonder you should speak like that before father," said Nina.
"And why shouldn"t he speak?" said Balatka. "I think he has as much right as any one."
"He has no right to make things worse than they are."
"I don"t know how I could do that, Nina," said the servant. "What made you take that money back to your aunt?"
"I didn"t take it back to my aunt."
"Well, to any of the family then? I suppose it came from your aunt?"
"It came from my cousin Ziska, and I thought it better to give it back.
Souchey, do not you come in between father and me. There are troubles enough; do not you make them worse."
"If I had been here you should never have taken it back again," said Souchey, obstinately.
"Father," said Nina, appealing to the old man, "how could I have kept it? You knew why it was given."
"Who is to help us if we may not take it from them?"
"To-morrow," said Nina, "I can get as much as he brought. And I will, and you shall see it."
"Who will give it you, Nina?"