The Ghetto Part 16

REBECCA.

[_Vexed._] Your servant--that Christian person--I suppose she's listening at that door?

RAFAEL.

[_He sits on the table._] You might go up and see.

REBECCA.

[_After hesitating, she runs up the stairs and opens the door._] Oh! I don't believe there is any one in the house but us! I'm afraid to come down!

RAFAEL.

You needn't be!

REBECCA.

You mustn't come up!

RAFAEL.

They'll be home soon. Let us proceed to business.

REBECCA.

[_Archly coming down one step._] Do you call it business?

RAFAEL.

I can't say I do. I weigh 12 stone, Rebecca, and your father won't give but 8000 guilders. That's--that's 666 guilders a stone; 14 into 666, that's only 45 guilders a pound! And----

REBECCA.

No, it's over 47-1/2 guilders a pound.

RAFAEL.

I am sure you are right--only 47-1/2 guilders a pound he'll give for me. No, I can't say I call that business.

REBECCA.

[_Coming down a step._] You don't seem to have much sentiment about it, Rafael.

RAFAEL.

Ah, if it were only a matter of sentiment! [_She comes down two steps._] But sentiment after business, Rebecca, after business. I am 40 inches round the chest, Rebecca; and if my heart should swell I should be doubtless 45. But at eight thousand guilders, Rebecca, it doesn't swell!

REBECCA.

But I--I don't like to talk this way, Rafael; it doesn't seem to me quite--quite nice.

RAFAEL.

That is your delicacy, Rebecca, your extreme delicacy. But we must not mix delicacy with business, Rebecca. He sticks at eight thousand, and not a thing, I suppose, in the way of dresses, finery, rigging----?

REBECCA.

It's really most unpleasant to have to talk of such things. Of course I shall have a dozen of everything; father has told me so--when I am--when I--I can't say it! I really can't speak of it.

RAFAEL.

That's your shrinking nature, Rebecca, your extreme sensitiveness!

H'm! How should a man's heart know which way to beat? On the one side the daughter, with her delicacy, her shrinking nature; on the other side the father, who sticks at eight thousand guilders! No; at eight thousand I will not love you. It would not be dignified at eight thousand!

REBECCA.

[_Coming down the remaining steps._] But you don't suppose that if my father were willing to give, say, ten thousand, he would begin at more than eight thousand; not with _your_ father--now would he, Rafael? But I think that nowadays, when young people are to be--when they intend--they ought to have some sentiment for each other.

RAFAEL.

H'm!

REBECCA.

And, moreover, I think that young men should be more careful as to how they let themselves be talked about--more careful than you are.

They call you an infidel, Rafael, and they say disagreeable things about you and this impertinent servant of yours.

RAFAEL.

They do! [_A pause._] Of course, if we were to contemplate matrimony--you and I--such a matter would be very serious.

REBECCA.

It certainly would.

RAFAEL.

And so it's very fortunate, Rebecca, that we have been talking in a kind of irony--you and I--over a matter which was never even remotely possible! Isn't it?

REBECCA.

[_After a pause._] Yes, _very_ fortunate. It would have been most unfortunate for you if you had ever entertained the idea. If your father or mine entertain it, we must speedily end that. Go on with your scullerymaid; it's nothing to me.

RAFAEL.

No, it's nothing to you, Rebecca! You and I don't want to marry, and they are trying to chain us together against our wills! We must fight them, Rebecca! We must put our backs against the wall! Your father will whisper avarice to you. He'll bid you look around. "This is thy neighbour's house," he'll say. "It will all be Rafael's; see--see--treasure, value, gain; see the jewels there, the gold and silver, the rich laces and old articles of art--all his, my girl--and his father will die soon! He'll die of joy if he gets eight thousand guilders with his daughter-in-law. And then it will be all yours--yours and Rafael's; yours to hug and wrap your soul around, my girl; all--all, from the last atom of diamond dust in the cases there, to the rust on the nail in the latch on the door that keeps away the moans of the starving!"

REBECCA.