tian papers; and when at last the formal proposal came, it
found her fearful only of her father's disapproval.

'He's so orthodox,' she murmured, as they sat in a rose-garlanded
niche at a great Jewish Charity Ball, lapped around by waltz-music and
the sweetness of love confessed.

'Well, I'm not so wicked as I was,' he smiled.

'But you smoke on the Sabbath, Leo--you told me.'

'And you told me your brother Julius does the same.'

'Yes, but father doesn't know. If Julius wants to smoke on Friday
evening, he always goes to his own room.'

'And I shan't smoke in your father's.'

'No--but you'll tell him. You're so outspoken.'

'Well, I won't tell him--unless he asks me.'

She looked sad. 'He won't ask you--he'll never get as far.'

He smiled confidently. 'You're not very encouraging, dear; what's the
matter with me?'

'Everything. You're an artist, with all sorts of queer notions. And
you're not so'--she blushed and hesitated--'not so rich----'

He pressed her fingers. 'Yes, I am; I'm the richest man here.'

A little delighted laugh broke from her lips, though they went on:
'But you told me your profits are small--marble is so dear.'

'So is celibacy. I shall economize dreadfully by marrying.'

She pouted; his flippancy seemed inadequate to the situation, and he
seemed scarcely to realize that she was an heiress. But he continued
to laugh away her fears. She was so beautiful and he was so
strong--what could stand between them? Certainly not the Palestinian
patriarch with whose inmost psychology he had, fortunately, become in
such cordial sympathy.

But Mabel's pessimism was not to be banished even by the supper
champagne. They had secured a little table for two, and were
recklessly absorbed in themselves.

'At the worst, we can elope to Palestine,' he said at last, gaily
serious.

Mabel shuddered. 'Live entirely among Jews!' she cried.

The radiance died suddenly out of his face; it was as if she had
thrust the knife she was wielding through his heart. Her silent
reception of his nationalist rhapsodies he had always taken for
agreement.

Nor might Mabel have undeceived him had his ideas remained Platonic.
Their irruption into the world of practical politics, into her own
life, was, however, another pair of shoes. Since Barstein had brought
Zionism to her consciousness, she had noted that distinguished
Christians were quite sympathetic, but this was the one subject on
which Christian opinion fail