"
Then there was silence for a few seconds before anyone spoke. The girls
did not dare to speak after words so serious from the father to the
son. It was known to both of them that Anton could hardly bring himself
to bear a rebuke even from his father, and they felt that such a rebuke
as this, given in their presence, would be altogether unendurable.
Every one in the room understood the exact position in which each
stood to the other. That Rebecca would willingly have become Anton's
wife, that she had refused various offers of marriage in order that
ultimately it might be so, was known to Stephen Trendellsohn, and to
Anton himself, and to Ruth Jacobi. There had not been the pretence of
any secret among them in the matter. But the subject was one which
could hardly be discussed by them openly. "Father," said Anton, after a
while, during which the black thunder-cloud which had for an instant
settled on his brow had managed to dispel itself without bursting into
a visible storm--"father, I am neither ashamed to think of my intended
marriage nor to speak of it.
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