"
She paused, and he was conscious of a premonitory chill upon his
ardour.
"What do you mean?" he asked her, and his voice was strained.
"I mean--you'll not be angry with me?--I mean that I would have
us married not only by a Christian priest, and in the Christian
manner, but also and first of all by a Rabbi, and in accordance
with the Jewish rites."
Upon the words, she felt his encircling arms turn limp, and relax
their grip upon her, whereupon she clung to him the more tightly.
"Rodrigo! Rodrigo! If you truly love me, if you truly want me,
you'll not deny me this condition, for I swear to you that once I
am your wife you shall never hear anything again to remind you
that I am of Jewish blood."
His face turned ghastly pale, his lips writhed and twitched, and
beads of sweat stood out upon his brow.
"My God!" he groaned. "What do you ask? I . . . I can't. It were
a desecration, a defilement."
She thrust him from her in a passion. "You regard it so? You
protest love, and in the very hour when I propose to sacrifice
all to you, you will not make this little sacrifice for my sake,
you even insult the faith that was my forbears', if it is not
wholly mine. I misjudged you, else I had not bidden you here to-
day.
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