“If I am blessed with sons, they shall be brought up as strict Jews.” The colour still suffused his cheeks. “I promise you, and she shall promise too, that the Montellas shall ever remain a Jewish family, and faithful to their heritage.” “Unless Lady Patricia renounces her creed and embraces ours, I shall never be satisfied. For the sake of the future generation, and for the honour of the House, I must insist on this.” “Very well, I will ask her; and I now have your approval and consent?” “Subject to this, yes.” She sighed, and received his filial kiss with moisture in her eyes. She felt that her boy was no longer her own particular idol now that he had given his heart away. Hitherto she had been the only woman to whom he offered his sweet tokens of affection; now there was another—and for the moment more attractive—goddess to whom there was homage due. That this was in the natural course of things did not mitigate the soreness in her heart. He was her only and passionately beloved son. “Lionel,” she said softly. “May I tell you a little story? It is about myself. When I was a girl, long before I met Sir Julian, I fell in love with a young officer—a Christian. I was so much in love with him that I thought it would break my heart to give him up. But in spite of that I would not consent to become his wife; there was something that held me back.” “And that was?” “Duty.” She laid an accent on the word. “My duty to my race and faith; my duty to my parents. I sent him away, and he eventually married a girl of his own faith. The happiness of my married life you know. So you see that although duty clashed with my own inclinations at the time, it brought me the truest happiness in the end.” Lionel paced the room with bent head. “I am disappointed in you, dear,” she continued slowly. “You must not mind my telling you the truth. I had thought that with you, as with me, duty would occupy the foremost place. I had thought that your enthusiasm for our race and your ambitions in regard to the amelioration of our oppressed brethren were such that you would forget all personal inclination. Lionel, I am certain, as I look into the future, that opportunity will be given you to prove your devotion to our cause. I am certain that you are destined to exercise a great influence, both politically and socially, _as a Jew_. Can you wonder, therefore, that I see in Lady Patricia a stumbling-block to your career? Will your co-religionists have the same opinion of you when you have married a Christian? Will you have the same voice, the same power, when you have married away from the race which you profess to love so deeply? Have you considered the question from that point of view? If not, you are merely acting on the impulse of the moment.”