"With Mathilde, or she with him; it is the same thing. I do not know whether this love still exists or has vanished."
"Several years have passed since then. She has had time to fade, to grow ugly; and, furthermore, she is married, so that she is no obstacle for us. His love for her proves that he is capable of passion. So much the better. Now-a-days, men have become veritable icebergs. They resist an enchantress like you, and let themselves be devoured by the demimonde"--
"Yes, they do not think of marriage. It is the spirit of the age."
"Jacob, of whom I have heard much from people who know him well, is a serious young man, sentimental, pious, and even fanatic. When you are with him, you must seem to bear the burden of the sufferings of two thousand years; you must sigh, and pretend to be full of tender and elegiac poetry."
"Dear mamma, do I need these lessons?" said Muse, a little piqued.
"No, my child; but a mother's heart is always full of fears. A better match would be difficult to find. Use every means to captivate him; meet him as if by chance, and invite him here. He loves music. We will give two or three entertainments where we will have Kontski and Doprzynski, and you and those two singers will make an adorable trio. Then will come the supper, when you will be irresistible from the charms of your toilet."
Muse shrugged her shoulders.
"O mamma," said she, "leave it all to me! I know well how to play my cards."
"Listen once more," said Madame Wtorkowska, drawing near her daughter, blushing and a little embarrassed. "We will play our part well. Jacob is a man of honour, sensitive and conscientious. With him, but with him alone, dear Emusia, one can resort to extreme measures to force him into the last intrenchments and bind him to us. He is young, passionate. It would be very easy to awaken in him--you understand me? I would not advise you to go so far with another, but with him it is different."
"Of course I understand you; why not? I am no longer a child," replied Muse, with an offended air. "The means are heroic, but might succeed with a perfectly honest man like Jacob. There was real genius in that idea, mamma."