The Ghetto Part 28

Oh, she's gone to bed--good! Sachel, Rafael had my promise to protect that girl; and I will protect her. Last Sat.u.r.day we were all overwrought; we were taken by surprise. But now that we all realise it, it comes to this: Rafael has married a Christian girl; she knows what an affront this is to the religion in which Rafael was reared, and to which inevitably he must return his full devotion when he grows an older and wiser man. Now there is but one remedy: Rosa must become a Jewess. Not to-night or to-morrow; but she must be influenced to open her heart to the faith of her husband; and she must be urged to welcome a future day when she shall enter the synagogue and come forth from there with all the hatred, all the revulsion which she has seen in our faces to-day, buried for ever!

Teach her to be thankful that this is Holland, where a Christian _may_ become a Jewess.

AARON.

Rabbi, your sentiments are worthy of your calling. Sachel and I have been talking; we both regret our bitter words of that day. Sachel has become reconciled--as much as any Jew could. And, to tell the truth, we had gone so far as to dismiss the subject and to devote ourselves to a very important matter of business which had to go over from Friday.

THE RABBI.

I see--I see! I am very glad, then! We must make Rosa understand the things that are glorious in our religion; the inspirations that have sustained us through centuries of the bitterest persecution that men have ever known. And she must believe that we shall cling to them until that supreme day when Jerusalem is peopled anew with the race which G.o.d has chosen for His own. Is it not so?

SACHEL.

Yes, yes! And we'll walk a little way with you. Then, Aaron, you can come back, and we can go on with that business.

[_They go up: THE RABBI stops at the bridge._

THE RABBI.

Very well; but you will treat the young girl tenderly, my friends?

Look here; you and Esther and Rafael bring her to my house some night when there will be no one else there. We'll let her feel the warmth of our hearts, as if she were already a Jewess. We will show her what the inner life of the Jews is; the life that the Christians have no conception of. And so we will work upon her better nature; but--yes, yes, I see you are busy. You are not worrying about Rafael, then?

AARON.

Oh, he'll be all right. I'm sure of it.

[_They start off over the bridge._

THE RABBI.

I'm glad to see you here, Aaron. It does you credit to forget your disappointments! [_Exeunt._

_A bell tolls ten o'clock. Enter ROSA. Her pallor and the tremor of her voice show the effects of intense emotional strain._

ROSA.

The very hour that he went away, and seven days are gone! Seven days--and he stood here and took me in his arms!

Oh!--[_turning_]--you who cry after me that Rafael has deserted his Christian mistress; it is because you never knew the love of anything but money! You look down--always down! But the same clear sky was over our heads when he kissed me here, and we looked up to it and thanked G.o.d, who made us dare to lead our life in open truth before the world! Let _G.o.d_ punish us for loving each other, if that be a crime! Oh, _does_ He punish us? Where is my Rafael, you star that watched over us then! I love him, I love him; I cannot live without him--sweet star, tell me where he is to-night! Oh, it is from pity that you will not tell! And he lies cold and dead! Rafael, Rafael, I'm all alone--all alone! [_Weeps._] No, no; it can't be that! Dear G.o.d, who sees me here among these aliens, you could not be so cruel to your own! Not so cruel as that! Not so cruel as that!

[_She sobs; exit._

_Enter AARON and SACHEL._

AARON.

Where is Esther?

SACHEL.

Can't you hear her snoring? I can, though she is away at the back of the house! I have not slept seven hours in these seven days!

AARON.

Do you think the girl has any suspicion that Rafael may have found that he has undertaken the impossible? If he did throw her off--I don't say that he has--but if he did, it must strike her that she wouldn't have a place to go in all the world!

SACHEL.

She believes in him.

AARON.

When he is with her, yes! But when he is away, and she waits and waits, are not all women alike? Doesn't she know that he has sacrificed every guilder that he might have had from you?

SACHEL.

I said that to them. Why did I not hold my cursed tongue! He hadn't a copper in his pocket; the poor boy had given away everything he had, to bury Mordecai's son.

AARON.

And does not she know that he gave up every friend he had, too, when he forsook his religion? These things must have pa.s.sed through her mind.

SACHEL.

What do I care what is pa.s.sing in _her_ mind!

AARON.

Of course, of course! [_Pulls the letters from his pocket._] But the main probability is that Rafael will soon return. I am only thinking whether before he returns this girl could not be influenced to leave here, made to believe that the boy has deserted her? You can't blame me for considering my daughter's feelings in this matter. Now suppose we could let drop a few things in Rosa's presence, without appearing to know that she overheard?

SACHEL.

I don't care about her! I want _him_ to come back.

AARON.

Don't you see: after a whole week, after all her waiting and waiting, without a word from him and with her whole life trembling in the balance, then if she overhears certain things----! Of course if we try to persuade her he is gone, she'll suspect at once. But there are certain remarks that we can let drop, quite casually, you know, that will absolutely make her believe that he does not intend to come back; that he has deserted her.

SACHEL.

But she _won't_ believe it!

AARON.

No, not if we try to convince her! But we won't try! You only make certain statements within her hearing; and if she says they are not true, just shrug your shoulders! What is in that girl's mind? Either that he has met harm, or that he is afraid to come back to her; that the poverty staring him in the face has been too much for him. Seven days is a long time when a woman is alone on the rack of doubt. Now, do you see what I mean?

SACHEL.

But I want my son! I don't care whether he marries your daughter! I want my son!