don, she said, was too young, and Jochanan from Paris, she pointed
out to Isaac of York, must be a spendthrift, or he would not wear those
absurd waistcoats. As for Ben Jonah, she said, she could not bear the
notion of tobacco and Dutch herrings: she wished to stay with her papa,
her dear papa. In fine, she invented a thousand excuses for delay, and
it was plain that marriage was odious to her. The only man whom she
received with anything like favor, was young Bevis Marks of London, with
whom she was very familiar. But Bevis had come to her with a certain
token that had been given to him by an English knight, who saved him
from a fagot to which the ferocious Hospitaller Folko of Heydenbraten
was about to condemn him. It was but a ring, with an emerald in it, that
Bevis knew to be sham, and not worth a groat. Rebecca knew about the
value of jewels too; but ah! she valued this one more than all the
diamonds in Prester John's turban. She kissed it; she cried over it;
she wore it in her bosom always and when she knelt down at night and
morning, she held it between her folded hands on her neck. . . . Young
Bevis Marks went away finally no better off than the others; the rascal
sold to the King of France a handsome ruby, the very size of the bit of
glass in Rebecca's ring; but he always said he would rather have had her
than ten thousand pounds: and very likely he would, for it was known she
would at once have a plum to her fortune.

These delays, however, could not continue for ever; and at a great
family meeting held at Passover-time, Rebecca was solemnly ordered to
choose a husband out of the gentlemen there present; her aunts pointing
out the great kindness which had been shown to her by her father,
in permitting her to choose for herself. One aunt was of the Solomon
faction, another aunt took Simeon's side, a third most venerable old
lady--the head of the family, and a hundred and forty-four years of
age--was ready to pronounce a curse upon her, and cast her out, unless
she married before the month was over. All the jewelled heads of all the
old ladies in council, all the beards of all the family, wagged against
her: it must have been an awful sight to witness.

At last, then, Rebecca was forced to speak. "Kinsmen!" she said, turning
pale, "when the Prince Abou Abdil asked me in marriage, I told you I
would not wed but with one of my own faith."

"She has turned Turk," screamed out the ladies. "She wants to be a
prince