firstly, because Nina was known all over Prague to be her niece--and, secondly, for the good of Christianity generally; but the girl herself, when rescued, she would willingly have left to starve in the poverty of the old house in the Kleinseite, as a punishment for her sin in having listened to a Jew. "I would have nothing more to say to her," said the mother to her son. "Nor I either," said Lotta, who was present. "She has demeaned herself far too much to be a fit wife for Ziska." "Hold your tongue, Lotta; what business have you to speak about such a matter?" said the young man. "All the same, Ziska, if I were you, I would give her up," said the mother. "If you were me, mother, you would not give her up. If every man is to give up the girl he likes because somebody else interferes with him, how is anybody to get married at all? It's the way with them all." "But a Jew, Ziska!" "So much the more reason for taking her away from him." Then Ziska went forth on a certain errand, the expediency of which he had discussed with his mother. "I never thought he'd be so firm about it, ma'am," said Lotta to her mistress. "If we could get Trendellsohn to turn her off, he would not think much of her afterwards," said the mother. "He wouldn't care to take the Jew's leavings." "But he seems to be so obstinate," said Lotta. "Indeed I did not think there was so much obstinacy in him." "Of course he is obstinate while he thinks the other man is to have her," said the mistress; "but all that will be changed when the girl is alone in the world." It was a Saturday morning, and Ziska had gone out with a certain fixed object. Much had been said between him and his mother since Anton Trendellsohn's visit to the office, and it had been decided that he should now go and see the Jew in his own home. He should see him and speak him fair, and make him understand if possible that the whole question of the property should be settled as he wished it--if he would only give up his insane purpose of marrying a Christian girl. Ziska would endeavour also to fill the Jew's mind with suspicion against Nina. The former scheme was Ziska's own; the second was that in which Ziska's mother put her chief trust. "If once he can be made to think that the girl is deceiving him, he will quarrel with her utterly," Madame Zamenoy had said.