uch more
probable, she knew, that the conversion would be the other way. And she
thought she would not mind that, if only it could be a real conversion.
But if she were induced to say that she was a Jewess, while she still
believed in St Nicholas and St John, and in the beautiful face of the
dear Virgin--if to please her husband she were to call herself a Jewess
while she was at heart a Christian--then her state would be very
wretched. She prayed again to St Nicholas to keep her from that state.
If she were to become a Jewess, she hoped that St Nicholas would let
her go altogether, heart and soul, into Judaism.

When she reached the end of the long bridge she looked anxiously up the
street by which she knew that he must come, endeavouring to discover
his figure by the glimmering light of an oil-lamp that hung at an angle
in the street, or by the brighter glare which came from the gas in a
shop-window by which he must pass. She stood thus looking and looking
till she thought he would never come. Then she heard the clock in the
old watch-tower of the bridge over her head strike three-quarters, and
she became aware that, instead of her lover being after his time, she
had yet to wait a quarter of an hour for the exact moment which he
had appointed. She did not in the least mind waiting. She had been
a little uneasy when she thought that he had neglected or forgotten
his own appointment. So she turned again and walked back towards the
Kleinseite, fixing her eyes, as she had so often done, on the rows of
windows which glittered along the great dark mass of the Hradschin
Palace. What were they all doing up there, those slow and faded
courtiers to an ex-Emperor, that they should want to burn so many
candles? Thinking of this she passed the tablet on the bridge, and,
according to her custom, put the end of her fingers on it. But as she
was raising her hand to her mouth to kiss it she remembered that the
saint might not like such service from one who was already half a Jew
at heart, and she refrained. She refrained, and then considered whether
the bridge might not topple down with her into the stream because of
her iniquity. But it did not topple down, and now she was standing
beyond any danger from the water at the exact spot which Trendellsohn
had named. She stood still lest she might possibly miss him by moving,
till she was again cold. But she did not regard that, though she
pressed her cloak closely round her limbs. She did