"Josef, answer for yourself like a man," said Madame Zamenoy. "Have you not forbidden this marriage? Do you not forbid it now? Let me at any rate hear you say that you have forbidden it." But Balatka found silence to be his easiest course, and answered not at all. "What am I to think of this?" continued Madame Zamenoy. "It cannot be that you wish your child to be the wife of a Jew!" "You are to think, aunt Sophie, that father is ill, and that he cannot stand against your violence." "Violence, you wicked girl! It is you that are violent." "Will you come out into the parlour, aunt?" "No, I will not come out into the parlour. I will not stir from this spot till I have told your father all that I think about it. Ill, indeed! What matters illness when it is a question of eternal damnation!" Madame Zamenoy put so much stress upon the latter word that her brother-in-law almost jumped from under the bed-clothes. Nina raised herself, as she was standing, to her full height, and a smile of derision came upon her face. "Oh, yes! I daresay you do not mind it," said Madame Zamenoy. "I daresay you can laugh now at all the pains of hell. Castaways such as you are always blind to their own danger; but your father, I hope, has not fallen so far as to care nothing for his religion, though he seems to have forgotten what is due to his family." "I have forgotten nothing," said old Balatka. "Why then do you not forbid her to do this thing?" demanded Madame Zamenoy. But the old man had recognised too well the comparative security of silence to be drawn into argument, and therefore merely hid himself more completely among the clothes. "Am I to get no answer from you, Josef?" said Madame Zamenoy. No answer came, and therefore she was driven to turn again upon Nina. "Why are you doing this thing, you poor deluded creature? Is it the man's money that tempts you?" "It is not the man's money. If money could tempt me, I could have it elsewhere, as you know." "It cannot be love for such a man as that. Do you not know that he and his father between them have robbed your father of everything?" "I know nothing of the kind." "They have; and he is now making a fool of you in order that he may get whatever remains." "Nothing remains. He will get nothing." "Nor will you. I do not believe that after all he will ever marry you. He will not be such a fool." "Perhaps not, aunt; and in that case you will have your wish." "But no one can ever speak to you again after such a condition. Do you think that I or your uncle could have you at our house when all the world shall know that you have been jilted by a Jew?" "I will not trouble you by going to your house." "And is that all the satisfaction I am to have?" "What do you want me to say?" "I want you to say that you will give this man up, and return to your duty as a Christian." "I will never give him up--never. I would sooner die."