be afraid of mother, if she will only do as I say." Balatka
had put out his hand and had taken the money, when the bedroom door was
opened, and Nina came in.

"What, Ziska," said she, "are you here?"

"Why not? why should I not see my uncle?"

"It is very good of you, certainly; only, as you never came before--"

"I mean it for kindness, now I have come, at any rate," said Ziska.

"Then I will take it for kindness," said Nina.

"Why should there be quarrelling among relatives?" said the old man
from among the bed-clothes.

"Why, indeed?" said Ziska.

"Why, indeed," said Nina, "--if it could be helped?"

She knew that the outward serenity of the words spoken was too good to
be a fair representation of thoughts below in the mind of any of them.
It could not be that Ziska had come there to express even his own
consent to her marriage with Anton Trendellsohn; and without such
consent there must of necessity be a continuation of quarrelling. "Have
you been speaking to father, Ziska, about those papers?" Nina was
determined that there should be no glozing of matters, no soft words
used effectually to stop her in her projected course. So she rushed at
once at the subject which she thought most important in Ziska's
presence.

"What papers?" said Ziska.

"The papers which belong to Anton Trendellsohn about this house and the
others. They are his, and you would not wish to keep things which
belong to another, even though he should be a--Jew."

Then it occurred to Ziska that Trendellsohn might be willing to give
up Nina if he got the papers, and that Nina might be willing to be
free from the Jew by the same arrangement. It could not be that such a
girl as Nina Balatka should prefer the love of a Jew to the love of a
Christian. So at least Ziska argued in his own mind. "I do not want to
keep anything that belongs to anybody," said Ziska. "If the papers are
with us, I am willing that they should be given up--that is, if it be
right that they should be given up."

"It is right," said Nina.

"I believe the Trendellsohns should have them--either father or son,"
said old Balatka.

"Of course they should have them," said Nina; "either father or son--it
makes no matter which."

"I will try and see to it," said Ziska.

"Pray do," said Nina; "it will be only just; and one would not wish
to rob even a Jew, I suppose." Ziska understood nothing of what was
intended by the tone of her voice, and began to think that there