"You see!" ventured the Tedesco timidly. "P'raps ven Grobstock had really had a girl you might even have come to marry her."
"Guard your tongue! A Sephardi cannot marry a Tedesco! It would be a degradation."
"Yes—but de oder vay round. A Tedesco can marry a Sephardi, not so? Dat is a rise. If Grobstock's daughter had married you, she vould have married above her," he ended, with an ingenuous air.
"True," admitted Manasseh. "But then, as Grobstock's daughter does not exist, and my wife does—!"
"Ah, but if you vas me," said Yankelé, "vould you rader marry a Tedesco or a Sephardi?"
"A Sephardi, of course. But—"
"I vill be guided by you," interrupted the Pole hastily. "You be de visest man I have ever known."
"But—" Manasseh repeated.
"Do not deny it. You be! Instantly vill I seek out a Sephardi maiden and ved her. P'raps you crown your counsel by choosing von for me. Vat?"
Manasseh was visibly mollified.