on her head,
now as then, that peculiar Hungarian hat which looks almost like a
coronet in front, and gives an aspect to the girl who wears it half
defiant and half attractive; and there were there, of course, the long,
glossy, black curls, and the dark-blue eyes, and the turn of the face,
which was so completely Jewish in its hard, bold, almost repellant
beauty. Nina had said that she liked the Jews, but when the words were
spoken she remembered that they might be open to misconstruction, and
she blushed. The same idea occurred to Rebecca, but she scorned to take
advantage of even a successful rival on such a point as that. She would
not twit Nina by any hint that this assumed liking for the Jews was
simply a special predilection for one Jew in particular. "We are not
ungrateful to you for coming among us and knowing us," said Rebecca.
Then there was a slight pause, for Nina hardly knew what to say to
her visitor. But Rebecca continued to speak. "We hear that in other
countries the prejudice against us is dying away, and that Christians
stay with Jews in their houses, and Jews with Christians, eating with
them, and drinking with them. I fear it will never be so in Prague."

"And why not in Prague? I hope it may. Why should we not do in Prague
as they do elsewhere?"

"Ah, the feeling is so firmly settled here. We have our own quarter,
and live altogether apart. A Christian here will hardly walk with a
Jew, unless it be from counter to counter, or from bank to bank. As for
their living together--or even eating in the same room--do you ever see
it?"

Nina of course understood the meaning of this. That which the girl said
to her was intended to prove to her how impossible it was that she
should marry a Jew, and live in Prague with a Jew as his wife; but she,
who stood her ground before aunt Sophie, who had never flinched for a
moment before all the threats which could be showered upon her from
the Christian side, was not going to quail before the opposition of a
Jewess, and that Jewess a rival!

"I do not know why we should not live to see it," said Nina.

"It must take long first--very long," said Rebecca. "Even now,
Fraeulein, I fear you will think that I am very intrusive in coming to
you. I know that a Jewess has no right to push her acquaintance upon a
Christian girl." The Jewess spoke very humbly of herself and of her
people; but in every word she uttered there was a slight touch of irony
which was not lost upo