"Father Jerome can do little or nothing if she has the bit between her teeth," said Lotta. "She is as obstinate as a mule when she pleases. She is not like other girls. You cannot frighten her out of anything." "I'll try, at least," said Madame Zamenoy. "Yes, we can try," said Lotta. "Would not the mayor help us--that is, if we were driven to go to that?" "I doubt if he could do anything. He would be afraid to use a high hand. He is Bohemian. The head of the police might do something, if we could get at him." "She might be taken away." "Where could they take her?" asked Lotta. "No; they could not take her anywhere." "Not into a convent--out of the way somewhere in Italy?" "Oh, heaven, no! They are afraid of that sort of thing now. All Prague would know of it, and would talk; and the Jews would be stronger than the priests; and the English people would hear of it, and there would be the very mischief." "The times have come to be very bad, Lotta." "That's as may be," said Lotta as though she had her doubts upon the subject. "That's as may be. But it isn't easy to put a young woman away now without her will. Things have changed--partly for the worse, perhaps, and partly for the better. Things are changing every day. My wonder is that he should wish to many her." "The men think her very pretty. Ziska is mad about her," said Madame Zamenoy. "But Ziska is a calf to Anton Trendellsohn. Anton Trendellsohn has cut his wise teeth. Like them all, he loves his money; and she has not got a kreutzer." "But he has promised to marry her. You may be sure of that." "Very likely. A man always promises that when he wants a girl to be kind to him. But why should he stick to it? What can he get by marrying Nina--a penniless girl, with a pauper for a father? The Trendellsohns have squeezed that sponge dry already." This was a new light to Madame Zamenoy, and one that was not altogether unpleasant to her eyes. That her niece should have promised herself to a Jew was dreadful, and that her niece should be afterwards jilted by the Jew was a poor remedy. But still it was a remedy, and therefore she listened. "If nothing else can be done, we could perhaps put him against it," said Lotta Luxa. Madame Zamenoy on that occasion said but little more, but she agreed with her servant that it would be better to resort to any means than to submit to the degradation of an alliance with the Jew. CHAPTER III