."

"Love!" said Madame Zamenoy, springing from her chair; love indeed! "Do
not talk to me of love for a Jew."

"My dear, my dear!" said her husband, expostulating.

"How dares he come here to talk of his love? It is filthy--it is worse
than filthy--it is profane."

"I came here, madame," continued Anton, "not to talk of my love, but of
certain documents or title-deeds respecting those houses, which should
be at present in my father's custody. I am told that your husband has
them in his safe custody."

"My husband has them not," said Madame Zamenoy.

"Stop, my dear--stop," said the husband.

"Not that he would be bound to give them up to you if he had got them,
or that he would do so; but he has them not."

"In whose hands are they then?"

"That is for you to find out, not for us to tell you."

"Why should not all the world be told, so that the proper owner may
have his own?"

"It is not always so easy to find out who is the proper owner," said
Zamenoy the elder.

"You have seen this contract before, I think, said Trendellsohn,
bringing forth a written paper.

"I will not look at it now at any rate. I have nothing to do with it,
and I will have nothing to do with it. You have heard Madame Zamenoy
declare that the deed which you seek is not here. I cannot say whether
it is here or no. I do not say--as you will be pleased to remember. If
it were here it would be in safe keeping for my brother-in-law, and
only to him could it be given."

"But will you not say whether it is in your hands? You know well that
Josef Balatka is ill, and cannot attend to such matters."

"And who has made him ill, and what has made him ill?" said Madame
Zamenoy. "Ill! of course he is ill. Is it not enough to make any man
ill to be told that his daughter is to marry a Jew?"

"I have not come hither to speak of that," said Trendellsohn.

"But I speak of it; and I tell you this, Anton Trendellsohn--you shall
never marry that girl."

"Be it so; but let me at any rate have that which is my own."

"Will you give her up if it is given to you?"

"It is here then?"

"No; it is not here. But will you abandon this mad thought if I tell
you where it is?"

"No; certainly not."

"What a fool the man is!" said Madame Zamenoy. "He comes to us for what
he calls his property because he wants to marry the girl, and she is
deceiving him all the while. Go to Nina Balatka, Trendellsohn, and she
will tell you who has the document. She wil