ne to-day?"

"Ah, I shall dine better to-day. I shall get a meal in the
Windberg-gasse."

"What! at my aunt's house?"

"Yes; at your aunt's house. They live well there, even in the kitchen.
Lotta will have for me some hot soup, a mess of cabbage, and a sausage.
I wish I could bring it away from your aunt's house to the old man and
yourself."

"I would sooner fall in the gutter than eat my aunt's meat."

"That is all very fine for you, but I am not going to marry a Jewess.
Why should I quarrel with your aunt, or with Lotta Luxa? If you would
give up the Jew, Nina, your aunt's house would be open to you; yes--and
Ziska's house."

"I will not give up the Jew," said Nina, with flashing eyes.

"I suppose not. But what will you do when he gives you up? What if
Ziska then should not be so forward?"

"Of all those who are my enemies, and whom I hate because they are so
cruel, I hate Ziska the worst. Go and tell him so, since you are
becoming one of them. In doing so much you cannot at any rate do me
harm."

Then she took herself off, forgetting in her angry spirit the
prudential motives which had induced her to begin the conversation with
Souchey. But Souchey, though he was going to Madame Zamenoy's house to
get his dinner, and was looking forward with much eagerness to the mess
of hot cabbage and the cold sausage, had by no means become "one of
them" in the Windberg-gasse. He had had more than one interview of late
with Lotta Luxa, and had perceived that something was going on, of
which he much desired to be at the bottom. Lotta had some scheme, which
she was half willing and half unwilling to reveal to him, by which she
hoped to prevent the threatened marriage between Nina and the Jew. Now
Souchey was well enough inclined to take a part in such a scheme--
provided it did not in any way make him a party with the Zamenoys in
things general against the Balatkas. It was his duty as a Christian--
though he himself was rather slack in the performance of his own
religious duties--to put a stop to this horrible marriage if he could
do so; but it behoved him to be true to his master and mistress, and
especially true to them in opposition to the Zamenoys. He had in some
sort been carrying on a losing battle against the Zamenoys all his
life, and had some of the feelings of a martyr, telling himself that
he had lost a rich wife by doing so. He would go on this occasion and
eat his dinner and be very confidential with Lotta;