"Then I will refuse; but he cannot give his wife the Ghet, for he knows not where she is. And as for me, I have taken an Issar. I have sworn never to marry the man who caused the tears of my father and my mother."
Wrath and contempt gave to Lia's face a wonderful beauty. She continued:--
"May my child be among the Asufim, the Piggum, and the Schetukim, rather than bear the name of his miserable father!"
Jacob made vain efforts to calm her, and said:--
"I do not approve of your Issar. The child needs a father, and the marriage would justify you in your parents' eyes."
All at once they heard David's voice in the antechamber. Lia snatched her child from its cradle and fled to another room, and Jacob was left alone. The door opened violently and the seducer rushed into the room, his face purple with rage. He was stupefied to find in Lia's visitor one whom he had not expected to meet again so soon. After a moment's silence his anger returned, and with drawn sword he rushed on his enemy, but his coolness and the heavy cane which Jacob presented kept him at a distance. He lowered his arm and muttered some unintelligible words.
"Why do you come here?" asked Jacob, with a firm voice.
"And you?"
"I am here at the request of Lia's father, with all the rights of a guardian."
"And I come to see my child."