on and a Christian maiden; but of late his
neighbours had been around him, and he had looked into the thing, and
his eyes had been opened, and he had declared to himself that he would
not take a Christian girl into his house as his daughter-in-law. He
could not prevent the marriage. The law would be on his son's side. The
law of the Christian kingdom in which he lived allowed such marriages,
and Anton, if he executed the contract which would make the marriage
valid, would in truth be the girl's husband. But--and Trendellsohn, as
he remembered the power which was still in his hands, almost regretted
that he held it--if this thing were done, his son must go out from his
house, and be his son no longer.

The old man was very proud of his son. Rebecca had said truly that no
Jew in Prague was so respected among Jews as Anton Trendellsohn. She
might have added, also, that none was more highly esteemed among
Christians. To lose such a son would be a loss indeed. "I will share
everything with him, and he shall go away out of Bohemia," Trendellsohn
had said to himself. "He has earned it, and he shall have it. He has
worked for me--for us both--without asking me, his father, to bind
myself with any bond. He shall have the wealth which is his own, but he
shall not have it here. Ah! if he would but take that other one as his
bride, he should have everything, and his father's blessing--and then
he would be the first instead of the last among his people." Such was
the purpose of Stephen Trendellsohn towards his son; but this, his real
purpose, did not hinder him from threatening worse things. To prevent
the marriage was his great object; and if threats would prevent it, why
should he not use them?

But now he had conceived the idea that Nina was deceiving his son--that
Nina was in truth holding back the deed with some view which he could
hardly fathom. Ziska Zamenoy had declared, with all the emphasis in
his power, that the document was, to the best of his belief, in Nina's
hands; and though Ziska's emphasis would not have gone far in
convincing the Jew, had the Jew's mind been turned in the other
direction, now it had its effect. "And who gave it her?" Trendellsohn
had asked. "Ah, there you must excuse me," Ziska had answered; "though,
indeed, I could not tell you if I would. But we have nothing to do with
the matter. We have no claim upon the houses. It is between you and the
Balatkas." Then the Jew had left the Zamenoys' office,