THE BANKER AND HIS DAUGHTER.
The beautiful daughter of the Jewish banker was alone in her apartments,
which, from the munificence of her wealthy father, were almost regal in
their arrangements.
Rachel, however, was so accustomed to magnificence that she had lost all
appreciation of it. She scarcely vouchsafed a glance to her inlaid
cabinets, her oriental carpets, her crystal lustres, and her costly
paintings. Even her own transcendent beauty, reflected in the large
Venetian mirrors that surrounded her, was unheeded, as she reclined in
simple muslin among the silken cushions of a Turkish divan.
But Rachel, in her muslin, was lovely beyond all power of language to
describe. Her youth, grace, and beauty were ornaments with which
"Nature's own cunning hand," had decked her from her birth. What diamond
ever lit up Golconda's mine with such living fire as flashed from her
hazel eyes? What pearl upon its ocean-bed ever glittered with a sheen
like that of the delicate teeth that peeped from between her pouting
coral lips? When she wandered in her vapory white dresses through her
father's princely halls, neither pictures nor statues there could
compare in color or proportion with the banker's queenly daughter
herself.
She lay on the dark silk cushions of the divan like a swan upon the
opalline waters of the lake at sunset. One arm, white and firm as
Carrara marble, supported her graceful head, while in her right hand she
held an open letter.
"Oh, my beloved!" murmured she, "you hope every thing from the
magnanimity of the emperor. But in what blessed clime was ever a Jewess
permitted to wed with a Christian? The emperor may remove the shackles
of our national bondage, but he can never lift us to social equality
with the people of another faith. There is nothing to bridge the gulf
that yawns between my beloved and me. It would kill my father to know
that I had renounced Judaism, and I would rather die than be his
murderer. Oh, my father! oh, my lover! My heart lies between you, and
yet I may not love you both!--But which must I sacrifice to the other?"
She paused and raised her eyes imploringly to heaven. Her cheeks
flushed, her bosom heaved, and no longer able to restrain her agitation,
she sprang from her divan, and light as a gazelle, crossed the room, and
threw open the window.
"No, my lover," said she, "no, I cannot renounce you! A woman must leave
father and mother, to follow him who reigns over her heart! I will leave
all things, then, for you, my Gunther!" And she pressed his letter to
her lips; then folding it, she hid it in her bosom.
A knock at the door caused her to start slightly, and, before she had
time to speak, the Jewish banker entered the room.
"My dear father!" exclaimed Rachel, joyfully, flying to him and putting
her arms around his tall, athletic form.
Eskeles Flies stroked her dark hair, and pressed a kiss upon her brow.
"I have not seen you for two days, father," said Rachel, reproachfully.
"I have been absent inspecting my new factories at Brunn, my daughter."
"And you went away without a word of adieu to me!"
"Adieu is a sorrowful word, my daughter, and I speak it reluctantly; but
a return home is a joy unspeakable, and you see that my first visit is
to YOU, dear child. To-day I come as a messenger of good tidings."
Rachel raised her head, and a flush of expectation rose to her face.
"Do the good tidings concern us both?" asked she.
"Not only ourselves, but our whole people. Look at me, Rachel, and tell
me wherein I have changed since last we met."
Rachel stepped back and contemplated her father with an affectionate
smile. "I see the same tall figure, the same energetic, manly features,
the same dear smile, and the same--no, not quite the same dress. You
have laid aside the yellow badge of inferiority that the Jew wears upon
his arm."
"The emperor has freed us from this humiliation, Rachel. This burden of
a thousand years has Joseph lifted from our hearts, and under his reign
we are to enjoy the rights of men and Austrians!"
"The emperor is a great and magnanimous prince!" exclaimed Rachel.
"We have been trampled so long under foot," said the banker, scornfully,
"that the smallest concession seems magnanimity. But of what avail will
be the absence of the badge of shame? It will not change the peculiarity
of feature which marks us among men, and betrays us to the Christian's
hate."
"May our nation's type be ever written upon our faces!" exclaimed
Rachel. "The emperor will protect us from the little persecutions of
society."
"He will have little time to think of us, he will have enough to do to
protect himself from his own enemies. He has decreed the dispersion of
the conventual orders, and as he has refused to yield up the goods of
the church, his subjects are becoming alienated from a man who has no
regard for the feelings of the pope. Moreover, he has proclaimed
universal toleration."
"And has he included us among the enfranchised, dear father?"
"Yes, my child, even we are to be tolerated. We are also to be permitted
to rent estates, and to learn trades. Mark me--not to BUY estates, but
to rent them: We are not yet permitted to be landed proprietors.
[Footnote: Ramshorn, "Joseph II," p. 259.] But they cannot prevent the
Jew from accumulating gold--'yellow, shining gold;' and riches are our
revenge upon Christendom for the many humiliations we have endured at
its pious hands. They have withheld from us titles, orders, and rank,
but they cannot withhold money. The finger of the Jew is a magnet, and
when he points it, the Christian ducats fly into his hand. Oh, Rachel! I
look forward to the day when the Jews shall monopolize the wealth of the
world: when they shall be called to the councils of kings and emperors,
and furnish to their oppressors the means of reddening the earth with
one another's blood! We shall pay them to slaughter one another, Rachel;
and that shall be our glorious revenge!"
"My dear, dear father," interposed Rachel, "what has come over you that
you should speak such resentful words? Revenge is unworthy of the noble
sons of Israel; leave it to the Christian, whose words are love, while
his deeds are hate."
"His words to the Jew are as insolent as his deeds are wicked. But I
know very well how to exasperate and humble the Christians. I do it by
means of my rich dwelling and my costly equipages. I do it by inviting
them to come and see how far more sumptuously I live than they. The
sight of my luxuries blackens their hearts with envy; but most of all
they envy the Jewish banker that his daughter so far outshines in beauty
their Gentile women!"
"Dear father," said Rachel, coloring, "you go to extremes in praise, as
in blame. You exaggerate the defects of the Christian, and the
attractions of your daughter."
Her father drew her graceful head to him, and nestled it upon his
breast. "No, my child, no, I do not exaggerate your beauty. It is not I
alone, but all Vienna, that is in raptures with your incomparable
loveliness."
"Hush, dear father! Would you see me vain and heartless?"
"I would see you appreciate your beauty, and make use of it."
"Make use of it! How?"
"To help your father in his projects of vengeance. You cannot conceive
how exultant I am when I see you surrounded by hosts of Christian
nobles, all doing homage to your beauty and your father's millions.
Encourage them, Rachel, that they may become intoxicated with love, and
that on the day when they ask me for my daughter's hand, I may tell them
that my daughter is a Jewess, and can never be the wife of a Christian!"
Rachel made no reply; her head still rested on her father's bosom, and
he could not see that tears were falling in showers from her eyes. But
he felt her sobs, and guessing that something was grieving her, he drew
her gently to a seat.
"Dear, dear child," cried he, anxiously, "tell me why you weep."
"I weep because I see that my father loves revenge far more than his
only child; and that he is willing to peril her soul by defiling it with
wicked coquetry. Now I understand why it is that such a profligate as
Count Podstadsky has been suffered to pollute our home by his visits!"
The banker's face grew bright. "Then, Rachel, you do not love him?" said
he, pressing his daughter to his heart.
"Love him!" exclaimed Rachel, with a shudder, "love a man who has
neither mind nor heart!"
"And I was so silly as to fear that your heart had strayed from its
duty, my child, and that the tears which you are shedding were for him!
But I breathe again; and can exult once more in the knowledge of his
love for you."
"No, father," said Rachel, "he does not love me. He loves nothing except
himself; but he wearies me with his importunities."
"What has he done to you, my daughter?"
"During your absence he came three times to see me. As I denied myself,
he had resort to writing, and sent me a note requesting a private
interview. Read it for yourself, father. It lies on the table."
The banker read, and his eyes flashed with anger. "Unmannerly wretch!"
exclaimed he, "to use such language to my daughter! But all Vienna shall
know how we scorn him! Answer his note favorably, Rachel; but let the
hour of your interview be at mid-day, for I wish no one to suppose that
my daughter receives Christians by stealth."
"I will obey you, father," replied Rachel, with a sigh; "but I would be
better satisfied to thrust him, without further ceremony, from the door.
I cannot write to him, however, that would be a compromise of my own
honor; but I will send him a verbal message by my own faithful old
nurse. She knows me too well to suspect me of clandestine intercourse
with a wretch like Podstadsky."
"Why not send the girl who delivered his letter?"
"Because I discharged her on the spot for her indiscretion."
"Bravely done, my precious child! You are as wise and as chaste as
Israel's beauteous daughters have ever been. I shall reward you for
despising the Christian count. But I must go. I must go to double my
millions and lay them all at my Rachel's feet."
He kissed his daughter's forehead, and rose from the divan. But as he
reached the door he turned carelessly.
"Has the emperor's private secretary visited you of late?"
"He was here yesterday," said Rachel, blushing.
"Did you receive him?"
"Yes, dear father, for you yourself presented him to me."
Eskeles Flies was silent for a while. "And yet," resumed he, "I believe
that I was wrong to invite him hither. In your unconscious modesty, you
have not perceived, my child, that Gunther loves you with all the fervor
of a true and honest heart. He may have indulged the thought that I
would bestow my daughter upon a poor little imperial secretary, whose
brother enjoys the privilege of blacking the emperor's boots. Although I
laugh at this presumption, I pity his infatuation, for he is an
excellent young man. Be careful--or rather, receive him no longer. You
see, Rachel, that toward an estimable man, I do not encourage coquetry;
on the contrary, I plead for poor Gunther. He must not be exposed to a
disappointment. It is understood, then, that you decline his visits."
He smiled kindly upon his daughter, and left the room.
Rachel looked after him with lips half parted, and face as pale as
marble. She stood motionless until the sound of her father's foot-steps
had died away: then sinking upon her knees, she buried her face in her
hands, and cried out in accents of despair
"Oh, my God! I am to see him no more!"