he knew how to plead.

"Have you ever spoken to Nina?" said the old man.

"Well, no; not exactly to say what I have said to you. When one loves a
girl as I love her, somehow--I don't know how--But I am ready to do so
at once.

"Ah, Ziska, if you had done it sooner!"

"But is it too late? You say she has taken up with this man because you
are both so poor. She cannot like a Jew best."

"But she is true--so true!"

"If you mean about her promise to Trendellsohn, Father Jerome would
tell her in a minute that she should not keep such a promise to a Jew."

"She would not mind Father Jerome."

"And what does she mind? Will she not mind you?"

"Me; yes--she will mind me, to give me my food."

"Will she not obey you?"

"How am I to bid her obey me? But I will try, Ziska."

"You would not wish her to marry a Jew?"

"No, Ziska; certainly I should not wish it."

"And you will give me your consent?"

"Yes, if it be any good to you."

"It will be good if you will be round with her, telling her that she
must not do such a thing as this. Love a Jew! It is impossible. As
you have been so very poor, she may be forgiven for having thought of
it. Tell her that, uncle Josef; and whatever you do, be firm with her."

"There she is in the next room," said the father, who had heard his
daughter's entrance. Ziska's face had assumed something of a defiant
look while he was recommending firmness to the old man; but now that
the girl of whom he had spoken was so near at hand, there returned to
his brow the young calf-like expression with which Lotta Luxa was so
well acquainted. "There she is, and you will speak to her yourself
now," said Balatka.

Ziska got up to go, but as he did so he fumbled in his pocket and
brought forth a little bundle of bank-notes. A bundle of bank-notes in
Prague may be not little, and yet represent very little money. When
bank-notes are passed for two-pence and become thick with use, a man
may have a great mass of paper currency in his pocket without being
rich. On this occasion, however, Ziska tendered to his uncle no
two-penny notes. There was a note for five florins, and two or three
for two florins, and perhaps half-a-dozen for a florin each, so that
the total amount offered was sufficient to be of real importance to
one so poor as Josef Balatka.

"This will help you awhile," said Ziska, "and if Nina will come round
and be a good girl, neither you nor she shall want anything; and she
need not