rgin to its place.

CHAPTER XIV

Father Jerome had been very mild with Nina, but his mildness did not
produce any corresponding feelings of gentleness in the breasts of
Nina's relatives in the Windberg-gasse. Indeed, it had the contrary
effect of instigating Madame Zamenoy and Lotta Luxa to new exertions.
Nina, in her triumph, could not restrain herself from telling Souchey
that Father Jerome did not by any means think so badly of her as did
the others; and Souchey, partly in defence of Nina, and partly in
quest of further sound information on the knotty religious difficulty
involved, repeated it all to Lotta. Among them they succeeded in
cutting Souchey's ground from under him as far as any defence of Nina
was concerned, and they succeeded also in solving his religious doubts.
Poor Souchey was at last convinced that the best service he could
tender to his mistress was to save her from marrying the Jew, let the
means by which this was to be done be, almost, what they might.

As the result of this teaching, Souchey went late one afternoon to
the Jews' quarter. He did not go thither direct from the house in the
Kleinseite, but from Madame Zamenoy's abode, where he had again dined
previously in Lotta's presence. Madame Zamenoy herself had condescended
to enlighten his mind on the subject of Nina's peril, and had gone so
far as to invite him to hear a few words on the subject from a priest
on that side of the water. Souchey had only heard Nina's report of what
Father Jerome had said, but he was listening with his own ears while
the other priest declared his opinion that things would go very badly
with any Christian girl who might marry a Jew. This sufficed for him;
and then--having been so far enlightened by Madame Zamenoy herself--he
accepted a little commission, which took him to the Jew's house. Lotta
had had much difficulty in arranging this; for Souchey was not open
to a bribe in the matter, and on that account was able to press his
legitimate suit very closely. Before he would start on his errand to
the Jew, Lotta was almost obliged to promise that she would yield.

It was late in the afternoon when he got to Trendellsohn's house. He
had never been there before, though he well knew the exact spot on
which it stood, and had often looked up at the windows, regarding the
place with unpleasant suspicions; for he knew that Trendellsohn was
now the owner of the property that had once been his master's, and, of
c