"But Madame Zamenoy would surely help you?"
"We would not take it from her. But we will not speak of that, sir. Can I have the money?" Then the jeweller gave her a receipt for the necklace and took her receipt for the sum he lent her. It was more than Nina had expected, and she rejoiced that she had so well completed her business. Nevertheless she wished that the jeweller had known nothing of her aunt. She was hardly out of the shop before she met her cousin Ziska, and she so met him that she could not escape him. She heard his voice, indeed, almost as soon as she recognised him, and had stopped at his summons before she had calculated whether it might not be better to run away. "What, Nina! is that you?" said Ziska, taking her hand before she knew how to refuse it to him.
"Yes; it is I," said Nina.
"What are you doing here?"
"Why should I not be in the Grosser Ring as well as another? It is open to rich and poor."
"So is Rapinsky's shop; but poor people do not generally have much to do there." Rapinsky was the name of the jeweller who had advanced the money to Nina.
"No, not much," said Nina. "What little they have to sell is soon sold."
"And have you been selling anything?"
"Nothing of yours, Ziska."
"But have you been selling anything?"