"Oh! do not refer more than is necessary to that sad event, dear father!" exclaimed the Jewess, in an imploring voice.
"Heaven knows, my child," responded her sire, "that—if you feel as I do——"
"I do—I do, dearest father!" cried Esther.
"Yes:—but not all the degradation—the infamy—the shame——"
"All—all, father,—even as acutely as yourself!" she said, in a voice denoting the most intense anguish.
"And yet, undutiful girl that you are," exclaimed Mr. de Medina, "you persist in seeing that lost—abandoned——"
The sudden rattling of a carriage in the street drowned the remainder of this sentence.
"Oh! my dearest father, forgive me!" cried Esther in a tone of the most earnest appeal. "You cannot imagine the extent of my love—my boundless love—for that unfortunate——"
"Unfortunate!" repeated Mr. de Medina angrily: "no—no! Say that most wretched—guilty—criminal——"
"My God! use not such harsh terms!" almost shrieked the beautiful Jewess; and the Earl of Ellingham could judge by the sound that she fell upon her knees as she spoke.