"You can at any rate answer a plain question, Josef,"
continued Madame Zamenoy. "Has Nina your leave to betroth herself to
the Jew, Trendellsohn?"
"No, I have not got his leave," said Nina.
"I am speaking to your father, miss," said the enraged aunt.
"Yes; you are speaking very roughly to father, and he is ill. Therefore
I answer for him."
"And has he not forbidden you to think of marrying this Jew?"
"No, he has not," said Nina.
"Josef, answer for yourself like a man," said Madame Zamenoy. "Have you
not forbidden this marriage? Do you not forbid it now? Let me at any
rate hear you say that you have forbidden it." But Balatka found
silence to be his easiest course, and answered not at all. "What am I
to think of this?" continued Madame Zamenoy. "It cannot be that you
wish your child to be the wife of a Jew!"
"You are to think, aunt Sophie, that father is ill, and that he cannot
stand against your violence."
"Violence, you wicked girl! It is you that are violent."
"Will you come out into the parlour, aunt?"
"No, I will not come out into the parlour.
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