crowds, or solitude; the
effort to seem delighted, or palpable discontent; extravagant festivity,
or bitterness and frowns. My haughty father was scarcely approachable,
unless when some lucky job shed a few drops of honey into his natural
gall; and my gentle mother habitually took refuge in her chamber, with a
feebleness of mind which only embittered her vexations. In short, the
"family fireside" had become with me a name for every thing dull and
discomforting; and a _tete-a-tete_ little less than an absolute terror.

But in this apartment I saw how perfectly possible it might be to make
one's way through life, even with so small a share of that world as the
woman before me. I had now spent some hours without a care, without a
wish, or even a thought beyond the room in which we sat. My imagination
had not flagged, no sense of weariness had touched me, our conversation
had never wanted a topic; yet the Jew was one certainly of no peculiar
charm of manner, though a man of an originally vigorous mind, and well
acquainted with general life; and even his daughter was too foreign and
fantastic to realize my _beau ideal_. Still with the one being of my
choice, I felt that it would be possible to be happy on a desert island.

Our supper was as animated as our evening. My remarks on the passing
world--a world of which I then knew not much more than the astronomer
does of the inhabitants of the moon, by inspecting it

"With his glazed optic tube,
At midnight from the top of Fesole,
Or in Val d'Arno, to descry new seas,
Rivers, and mountains on her spotty globe"--

were received with an acquiescence, which showed that I had already
gained some ground, even in the rough, though undoubtedly subtle and
powerful mind of the Jew: as for Mariamne, she was all delight, and
until she took her leave of us for the night, all smiles.

As she closed the door Mordecai laid his muscular hand on my shoulder.
"A word with you, Mr Marston; you have rendered me the highest of
services in saving that girl from a dreadful death. You have been of use
to me in other matters also, unconsciously I aver--but we shall talk of
that another time. To come to the point at once. If you can make
yourself my daughter's choice, for I shall never control her, I shall
not throw any obstacles in the way. What say you?"

I never felt more difficulty in an answer. My voice actually died within
my lips. I experienced a feverish sensation which