"You may do as you will, Nina; but it may be, when they shall know it, that therefore there may be new difficulty made about the houses. Karil Zamenoy has the papers, which are in truth mine--or my father's--which should be here in my iron box." And Trendellsohn, as he spoke, put his hand forcibly on the seat beside him, as though the iron box to which he alluded were within his reach. "I know they are yours," said Nina. "Yes; and without them, should your father die, I could not claim my property. The Zamenoys might say they held it on your behalf--and you my wife at the time! Do you see, Nina? I could not stand that--I would not stand that." "I understand it well, Anton." "The houses are mine--or ours, rather. Your father has long since had the money, and more than the money. He knew that the houses were to be ours." "He knows it well. You do not think that he is holding back the papers?" "He should get them for me. He should not drive me to press him for them. I know they are at Karil Zamenoy's counting-house; but your uncle told me, when I spoke to him, that he had no business with me; if I had a claim on him, there was the law. I have no claim on him. But I let your father have the money when he wanted it, on his promise that the deeds should be forthcoming. A Christian would not have been such a fool." "Oh, Anton, do not speak to me like that." "But was I not a fool? See how it is now. Were you and I to become man and wife, they would never give them up, though they are my own--my own. No; we must wait; and you--you must demand them from your uncle." "I will demand them. And as for waiting, I care nothing for that if you love me." "I do love you." "Then all shall be well with me; and I will ask for the papers. Father, I know, wishes that you should have all that is your own. He would leave the house to-morrow if you desired it." "He is welcome to remain there." "And now, Anton, good-night." "Good-night, Nina." "When shall I see you again?" "When you please, and as often. Have I not said that you are light and heat to me? Can the sun rise too often for those who love it?" Then she held her hand up to be kissed, and kissed his in return, and went silently down the stairs into the street. He had said once in the course of the conversation--nay, twice, as she came to remember in thinking over it--that she might do as she would about telling her friends; and she had been almost craftily careful to say nothing herself, and to draw nothing from him, which could be held as militating against this authority, or as subsequently negativing the permission so given. She would undoubtedly tell her father--and her aunt; and would as certainly demand from her uncle those documents of which Anton Trendellsohn had spoken to her. CHAPTER II