"But will you not say whether it is in your hands? You know well that Josef Balatka is ill, and cannot attend to such matters."
"And who has made him ill, and what has made him ill?" said Madame Zamenoy. "Ill! of course he is ill. Is it not enough to make any man ill to be told that his daughter is to marry a Jew?"
"I have not come hither to speak of that," said Trendellsohn.
"But I speak of it; and I tell you this, Anton Trendellsohn — you shall never marry that girl."
"Be it so; but let me at any rate have that which is my own."
"Will you give her up if it is given to you?"
"It is here then?"
"No; it is not here. But will you abandon this mad thought if I tell you where it is?"
"No; certainly not."
"What a fool the man is!" said Madame Zamenoy. "He comes to us for what he calls his property because he wants to marry the girl, and she is deceiving him all the while. Go to Nina Balatka, Trendellsohn, and she will tell you who has the document. She will tell you where it is, if it suits her to do so."