religious sense, and even the Spanish singer, Jehuda Halevi, used his rapture to describe the ideal of a nation rather than to envisage with it the desires of a man.
Aaron listened attentively to his daughter's words.
“Thy heart could not have directed thee better, and I am deeply pleased to hear thy sweet confession. Nay, be not confused, my mind goes back to dim days—days long gone—when I drew those selfsame fond words, in that very voice, from thy mother’s lips—lips long cold and silent.” He sighed deeply, moving uneasily as he strove to conceal his momentary distress.
Rachel remained silent, musing.
"Solomon," suddenly continued her father, "Solomon proceeds next week to Rome, and when he returns we will make a right good marriage feast. Yet would I that some mighty change might come over us. This life, with its pettiness, this grind against the millstone of petty persecution unfits a great soul for labor and destroys the scholars ambition; and Solomon is a scholar. And still I have my doubts, there must be a vein of purest Hebrew blood in his body. He is a rare creature of impulse that would hover of a book when there is danger and a man of fiery action, an untrained steed, reckless, champing, and pawing when searching the books of our lore for knowledge." He seemed more intent on self-communion than engaged in conversation. "Well, Rome will open wide his eyes. It must be a great city, and the journey must be well worth the making, and I can give him some advice. My name," with conscious pride, "will open wide the door of many a house at which princes beg for entrance, when they burst not the locks, and sword in hand demand the Jews to lend them gold for their debauchery—the gold they will never return. Yes, yes; the despised Jews of Frankfort can give a better safe conduct to a brother than even a king—such are the times on which we have fallen."
"But, father, why need Solomon go to Rome? I wish—I wish he would not go. Isaac of Hamburg, who sold me that Flemish lace—you know the lace so much admired last Yomtof (festival time), told me how dangerous was even the short journey from Hamburg to Frankfort. I noticed he trembled in every limb when in the synagogue he said the blessing for a safe journey. How much—much more dangerous must be the journey to Rome, where all are enemies of the Jews."
. "Tush, tush, girl! He told thee a good peddler's tale, gaining from thee, I warrant, a better price for the lace than thou otherwise wouldst have given. It matters not; though Isaac might have reserved his traveling tales for a Nazarene." Then aside to himself, his face assuming a somewhat gloomy look, "It's true from Hamburg to Frankfort there are a hundred dangers for the Jews—from Frankfort to Rome there may be a thousand pitfalls for the unwary, and Solomon has never gone a score of miles from this street."
CHAPTER IV
THE PILGRIM'S STAFF
At the close of the Feast of the Tabernacles, Solomon had been betrothed to Rachel, and the betrothal pledges were made amidst the rejoicings enjoined by Jewish custom. The intimacy between Aaron and Solomon had, not unnaturally,