Jacob was absorbed in the study of the works of Maimonides, when his servant brought him a visiting-card.

This servant had replaced him who had so rudely received his master's mother, and who, on account of her, had left Jacob's service, with tears in his eyes, but too proud to serve a country-woman in Jewish costume.

The visiting-card bore a name engraved indistinctly. Without deciphering the name, Jacob received his visitor. He frowned when he recognized David Seebach the younger, the seducer of Lia. He was dressed richly, but in bad taste, with a cane in his hand, an eye-glass at his eye, and a smile on his lips. Jacob received him coldly, and, with a wave of the hand, indicated a chair. David seated himself, put the end of his cane in his mouth, adjusted his eye-glass, and spoke in a low voice:--

"My presence at your house is perhaps a surprise, for you gained, I fear, a bad impression of us on our last interview. We were very sorry, my father and I, not to have been able to conceal that unfortunate exile for you, but"--

"I do not blame you for that. Every one has a right to act as he pleases."

"Since then I have thought it over, and I admit that I was in the wrong. Your reasoning was just at all points. We must follow the current; we must side with Poland. My father and I, however, do not think alike, on account of his former relations. He remains in the Russian camp, while I take the side of the Poles. Thus we are safe in any case."

"As you please," said Jacob, in an indifferent tone.

"You are on their side, are you not?" asked David.

"I am for Poland, but I am not a revolutionist."

"As for myself, I have made the acquaintance of the principal agitators. I attend all the meetings, and I will aid the revolutionists, for there is money to be made by so doing. As a measure of precaution I have put all my property in a safe place across the frontier, so that in case I am taken the Russians can get nothing, and my father can save me from the hands of the police through the protection of the high functionaries with whom he is in favour. The patriots will need capital to procure arms at the Austrian frontier. I will accommodate them, and the profits will be worth running a little risk."

"Excuse me," interrupted Jacob. "I do not wish to meddle in such business."

"How is that? Have you not said that you sympathize with Poland, and did you not reproach us for being opposed to it?"

"Listen to me, my good David. If I am Polish, it is not from love of lucre, not for fear, but from conviction."

"I am equally patriotic at heart," said David. "I sing the recent hymns which ask God to manifest his power against the secular enemy. I believed that you would aid me to conduct my business to a successful termination; for to speak frankly, as I am a new convert the patriots have not yet entire confidence in me. Your recommendation would have weight, and you can share the profits."

At these words Jacob rang, and the servant appeared immediately.

"You see this gentleman," said the master. "Look at him well so as to recognize him."

"Monsieur, I will remember him."

"Very well. If he ever presents himself here again you will not admit him."

David arose, frightened and furious.

"Be careful how you treat me, my dear Jacob," said he, as he left. "I have your life in my hands, and I will be revenged."

After this scene Jacob's brow was bathed in a cold sweat, and he fell on a couch nearly prostrated. He was aroused by the arrival of Lia's servant, who said that her mistress begged him to come immediately to St. George's street. He called a carriage and hastened to the dwelling of David's victim.

Near the house he perceived a veiled woman, who seemed agitated on seeing him, and leaned against the wall as if faint. Then she rapidly disappeared around the corner. Something about this woman reminded him of Mathilde.

What if it was she!

This thought could be imaginary only, and Jacob did not entertain it for a moment. Lia, all in tears, ran to meet him for whom she had waited impatiently.

"Oh!" cried she, "that wretch has been here; he has dared to look at my child. Save me from him! He has threatened to return. I will not see him. I do not know him."

"Be quiet. You have nothing to fear. Did he tell you why he came? Perhaps he is divorced from his wife, and he wishes to marry you."

"Then I will refuse; but he cannot give his wife the Ghet, for he knows not where she is. And as for me, I have taken an Issar. I have sworn never to marry the man who caused the tears of my father and my mother."

Wrath and contempt gave to Lia's face a wonderful beauty. She continued:--

"May my child be among the Asufim, the Piggum, and the Schetukim, rather than bear the name of his miserable father!"

Jacob made vain efforts to calm her, and said:--

"I do not approve of your Issar. The child needs a father, and the marriage would justify you in your parents' eyes."

All at once they heard David's voice in the antechamber. Lia snatched her child from its cradle and fled to another room, and Jacob was left alone. The door opened violently and the seducer rushed into the room, his face purple with rage. He was stupefied to find in Lia's visitor one whom he had not expected to meet again so soon. After a moment's silence his anger returned, and with drawn sword he rushed on his enemy, but his coolness and the heavy cane which Jacob presented kept him at a distance. He lowered his arm and muttered some unintelligible words.

"Why do you come here?" asked Jacob, with a firm voice.

"And you?"

"I am here at the request of Lia's father, with all the rights of a guardian."

"And I come to see my child."

"Neither the mother nor the child belong to you. Have you given them your name? Have you shielded them from shame, misery, and malediction?"

"I intend to divorce my wife and marry Lia. I must speak with her. Why do you hinder me?"

"I consent that she sees you in my presence, if she wish. Otherwise, no."

"She ought to be willing, for I hold her fate in my hands."

He had hardly ceased speaking when Lia opened the door and entered, her features convulsed with aversion and contempt. She was superb in her scorn, and David trembled as he regarded her. She hesitated an instant, then cried;--

"Between you and me there is no longer anything in common. I declare, before this witness, that I will never be your wife, and I forbid you to call yourself my child's father. May my tears, my sobs, my sufferings, my sleepless nights, and the disgrace that I have brought to my family bring down upon your head divine wrath! May you be tortured by demons, and may Dumah invent for you new torments!"

In the midst of these imprecations her eyes became suddenly fixed in her head. Her arm appeared paralyzed and her legs sank under her; a froth came from her mouth, and with a convulsive laugh and piercing cries she fell senseless.

David fled from the house, his face covered with his hands. The maid ran for a physician, who, on his arrival, said that it was not an ordinary fainting, but a dangerous attack of apoplexy. All remedies used in such cases were employed, but the stricken one did not regain consciousness until toward evening, when she heard her child cry. She extended her arms to him, but her strength failed anew. Jacob watched by her bedside until daybreak.