"But how can I come, Ruth?" she said. "It is he that should come to
me."
"You used to come."
"Ah, yes. I came first with messages from father, and then because I
loved to hear him talk to me. I do not mind telling you, Ruth, now. And
then I came because--because he said I was to be his wife. I thought
that if I was to be his wife it could not be wrong that I should go to
his father's house. But now that so many people know it--that they talk
about it so much--I cannot go to him now."
"But you are not ashamed of being engaged to him--because he is a Jew?"
"No," said Nina, raising herself to her full height; "I am not ashamed
of him. I am proud of him. To my thinking there is no man like him.
Compare him and Ziska, and Ziska becomes hardly a man at all. I am very
proud to think that he has chosen me."
"That is well spoken, and I shall tell him."
"No, you must not tell him, Ruth. Remember that I talk to you as a
friend, and not as a child."
"But I will tell him, because then his brow will become smooth, and he
will be happy.
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