But she has asked me
to say--"
"What has she asked you to say? Why should she say anything to me?"
"Nay, Nina; she is very good, and she loves you."
"I do not want her love."
"I am to say to you that she has heard of your distress, and she hopes
that a girl like you will let a girl like her do what she can to
comfort you."
"She cannot comfort me."
"She bade me say that if she were ill or in sorrow, there is no hand
from which she would so gladly take comfort as from yours--for the
sake, she said, of a mutual friend."
"I have no--friend," said Nina.
"Oh, Nina, am not I your friend? Do not I love you?"
"I do not know. If you do love me now, you must cease to love me. You
are a Jewess, and I am a Christian, and we must live apart. You, at
least, must live. I wish you would tell the boy that he may take back
the basket."
"There are things in it for your father, Nina; and, Nina, surely you
will read Rebecca's note?"
Then Ruth went to the basket, and from the top she took out Rebecca's
letter, and gave it to Nina, and Nina read it.
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