but Ruth
remembered the message that had been intrusted to her, and managed to
find a moment in which to deliver it. But her uncle took it amiss, and
scolded her. "You two have been talking nonsense together here half the
day, I suppose."

"I spoke to her for five minutes, uncle; that was all."

"Did you do your lessons with Madame Pulsky?"

"Yes, I did, uncle--of course. You know that."

"I know that it is a pity you should not be better looked after."

"Bring Nina home here and she will look after me."

"Go to bed, miss--at once, do you hear?"

Then Ruth went off to her bed, wondering at Nina's choice, and
declaring to herself, that if ever she took in hand a lover at all, he
should be a lover very different from her uncle, Anton Trendellsohn.

CHAPTER V

The more Madame Zamenoy thought of the terrible tidings which had
reached her, the more determined did she become to prevent the
degradation of the connection with which she was threatened. She
declared to her husband and son that all Prague were already talking
of the horror, forgetting, perhaps, that any knowledge which Prague had
on the subject must have come from herself. She had, indeed, consulted
various persons on the subject in the strictest confidence. We have
already seen that she had told Lotta Luxa and her son, and she had, of
course, complained frequently on the matter to her husband. She had
unbosomed herself to one or two trusty female friends who lived near
her, and she had applied for advice and assistance to two priests.
To Father Jerome she had gone as Nina's confessor, and she had also
applied to the reverend pastor who had the charge of her own little
peccadilloes. The small amount of assistance which her clerical allies
offered to her had surprised her very much. She had, indeed, gone so
far as to declare to Lotta that she was shocked by their indifference.
Her own confessor had simply told her that the matter was in the hands
of Father Jerome, as far as it could be said to belong to the Church at
all; and had satisfied his conscience by advising his dear friend to
use all the resources which female persecution put at her command. "You
will frighten her out of it, Madame Zamenoy, if you go the right way
about it," said the priest. Madame Zamenoy was well inclined to go the
right way about it, if she only knew how. She would make Nina's life a
burden to her if she could only get hold of the girl, and would scruple
at no threats