"But is she to be married in a Christian church?" he breathed.
"Oh, she isn't going to marry—yet."
His poor heart fluttered at the reprieve.
"She doesn't care a pin for our feelings," went on Leah. "But of course she won't marry while you are alive."
Lily took up the thread. "We all told her if she'd only marry a Jew, we'd all be glad to have you—in turn. But she said it wasn't that. She could have you herself; her Alfred wouldn't mind. It's the shock to your religious feelings that keeps her back. She doesn't want to hurt you."
"God bless her, my good little Schnapsie!" he murmured. His dazed brain did not grasp all the bearings, was only conscious of a vast relief.
Disgust darkened all the faces.
He groped to understand it, putting his hand over the white hairs that straggled from his skull-cap.
"But then—then it's all right."