'He's so orthodox,' she murmured, as they sat in a rose-garlanded niche at a great Jewish Charity Ball, lapped around by waltz-music and the sweetness of love confessed.
'Well, I'm not so wicked as I was,' he smiled.
'But you smoke on the Sabbath, Leo--you told me.'
'And you told me your brother Julius does the same.'
'Yes, but father doesn't know. If Julius wants to smoke on Friday evening, he always goes to his own room.'
'No--but you'll tell him. You're so outspoken.'
'Well, I won't tell him--unless he asks me.'
She looked sad. 'He won't ask you--he'll never get as far.'
He smiled confidently. 'You're not very encouraging, dear; what's the matter with me?'
'Everything. You're an artist, with all sorts of queer notions. And you're not so'--she blushed and hesitated--'not so rich----'
He pressed her fingers. 'Yes, I am; I'm the richest man here.'
A little delighted laugh broke from her lips, though they went on: 'But you told me your profits are small--marble is so dear.'
'So is celibacy. I shall economize dreadfully by marrying.'
She pouted; his flippancy seemed inadequate to the situation, and he seemed scarcely to realize that she was an heiress. But he continued to laugh away her fears. She was so beautiful and he was so strong--what could stand between them? Certainly not the Palestinian patriarch with whose inmost psychology he had, fortunately, become in such cordial sympathy.
But Mabel's pessimism was not to be banished even by the supper champagne. They had secured a little table for two, and were recklessly absorbed in themselves.
'At the worst, we can elope to Palestine,' he said at last, gaily serious.
Mabel shuddered. 'Live entirely among Jews!' she cried.
The radiance died suddenly out of his face; it was as if she had thrust the knife she was wielding through his heart. Her silent reception of his nationalist rhapsodies he had always taken for agreement.
Nor might Mabel have undeceived him had his ideas remained Platonic. Their irruption into the world of practical politics, into her own life, was, however, another pair of shoes. Since Barstein had brought Zionism to her consciousness, she had noted that distinguished Christians were quite sympathetic, but this was the one subject on which Christian opinion failed to impress Mabel. 'Zionism's all very well for Christians--they're in no danger of having to go to Palestine,' she had reflected shrewdly.