Nina Balatka | Page 7

Jew--though he had not scrupled to allow Nina to go
frequently among these people, and to use her services with them for
staving off the ill consequences of his own idleness and ill-fortune; but
he was a meek, broken man, and was so accustomed to yield to Nina
that at last he might have yielded to her even in this. There was,
however, that Madame Zamenoy, her aunt--her aunt with the bitter
tongue; and there was Ziska Zamenoy, her cousin--her rich and
handsome cousin, who would so soon declare himself willing to
become more than cousin, if Nina would but give him one nod of
encouragement, or half a smile of welcome. But Nina hated her
Christian lover, cousin though he was, as warmly as she loved the Jew.
Nina, indeed, loved none of the Zamenoys-- neither her cousin Ziska,
nor her very Christian aunt Sophie with the bitter tongue, nor her
prosperous, money-loving, acutely mercantile uncle Karil; but,
nevertheless, she was in some degree so subject to them, that she knew
that she was bound to tell them what path in life she meant to tread.
Madame Zamenoy had offered to take her niece to the prosperous
house in the Windberg-gasse when the old house in the Kleinseite had
become poor and desolate; and though this generous offer had been
most fatuously declined--most wickedly declined, as aunt Sophie used
to declare--nevertheless other favours had been vouchsafed; and other
favours had been accepted, with sore injury to Nina's pride. As she
thought of this, standing in the gloom of the evening under the archway,
she remembered that the very frock she wore had been sent to her by
her aunt. But I in spite of the bitter tongue, and in spite of Ziska's
derision, she would tell her tale, and would tell it soon. She knew her
own courage, and trusted it; and, dreadful as the hour would be, she
would not put it off by one moment. As soon as Anton should desire
her to declare her purpose, she would declare it; and as he who stands
on a precipice, contemplating the expediency of throwing himself from
the rock, will feel himself gradually seized by a mad desire to do the

deed out of hand at once, so did Nina feel anxious to walk off to the
Windberg-gasse, and dare and endure all that the Zamenoys could say
or do. She knew, or thought she knew, that persecution could not go
now beyond the work of the tongue. No priest could immure her. No
law could touch her because she was minded to marry a Jew. Even the
people in these days were mild and forbearing in their usages with the
Jews, and she thought that the girls of the Kleinseite would not tear her
clothes from her back even when they knew of her love. One thing,
however, was certain. Though every rag should be torn from
her--though some priest might have special power given him to
persecute her--though the Zamenoys in their wrath should be able to
crush her--even though her own father should refuse to see her, she
would be true to the Jew. Love to her should be so sacred that no other
sacredness should be able to touch its sanctity. She had thought much
of love, but had never loved before. Now she loved, and, heart and soul,
she belonged to him to whom she had devoted herself. Whatever
suffering might be before her, though it were suffering unto death, she
would endure it if her lover demanded such endurance. Hitherto, there
was but one person who suspected her. In her father's house there still
remained an old dependant, who, though he was a man, was cook and
housemaid, and washer-woman and servant-of-all-work; or perhaps it
would be more true to say that he and Nina between them did all that
the requirements of the house demanded. Souchey--for that was his
name--was very faithful, but with his fidelity had come a want of
reverence towards his master and mistress, and an absence of all
respectful demeanour. The enjoyment of this apparent independence by
Souchey himself went far, perhaps, in lieu of wages.
"Nina," he said to her one morning, "you are seeing too much of Anton
Trendellsohn."
"What do you mean by that, Souchey?" said the girl, sharply.
"You are seeing too much of Anton Trendellsohn," repeated the old
man.
"I have to see him on father's account. You know that. You know that,
Souchey, and you shouldn't say such things."

"You are seeing too much of Anton Trendellsohn," said Souchey for
the third time. "Anton Trendellsohn is a Jew."
Then Nina knew that Souchey had read her secret, and was sure that it
would spread from him through Lotta Luxa, her aunt's confidential
maid, up