“You don’t?” he said in a disappointed tone.

She shook her head silently.

“Why not?” he inquired anxiously.

“Well, to tell the truth, this forced marriage was my only chance of getting a husband who wasn’t pious.  Don’t look so puzzled.  I wasn’t shocked at your wickedness—­you mustn’t be at mine.  You know there’s such a lot of religion in our house that I thought if I ever did get married I’d like a change.”

“Ha! ha! ha!  So you’re as the rest of us.  Well, it’s plucky of you to admit it.”

“Don’t see it.  My living doesn’t depend on religion, thank Heaven.  Father’s a saint, I know, but he swallows everything he sees in his books just as he swallows everything mother and I put before him in his plate—­and in spite of it all—­” She was about to mention Levi’s shortcomings but checked herself in time.  She had no right to unveil anybody’s soul but her own and she didn’t know why she was doing that.

“But you don’t mean to say your father would forbid you to marry a man you cared for, just because he wasn’t froom?”

“I’m sure he would.”

“But that would be cruel.”

“He wouldn’t think so.  He’d think he was saving my soul, and you must remember he can’t imagine any one who has been taught to see its beauty not loving the yoke of the Law.  He’s the best father in the world—­but when religion’s concerned, the best-hearted of mankind are liable to become hard as stone.  You don’t know my father as I do.  But apart from that, I wouldn’t marry a man, myself, who might hurt my father’s position.  I should have to keep a kosher house or look how people would talk!”

“And wouldn’t you if you had your own way?”

“I don’t know what I would do.  It’s so impossible, the idea of my having my own way.  I think I should probably go in for a change, I’m so tired—­so tired of this eternal ceremony.  Always washing up plates and dishes.  I dare say it’s all for our good, but I am so tired.”

“Oh, I don’t see much difficulty about Koshers.  I always eat kosher meat myself when I can get it, providing it’s not so beastly tough as it has a knack of being.  Of course it’s absurd to expect a man to go without meat when he’s travelling up country, just because it hasn’t been killed with a knife instead of a pole-axe.  Besides, don’t we know well enough that the folks who are most particular about those sort of things don’t mind swindling and setting their houses on fire and all manner of abominations?  I wouldn’t be a Christian for the world, but I should like to see a little more common-sense introduced into our religion; it ought to be more up to date.  If ever I marry, I should like my wife to be a girl who wouldn’t want to keep anything but the higher parts of Judaism.  Not out of laziness, mind you, but out of conviction.”

David stopped suddenly, surprised at his own sentiments, which he learned for the first time.  However vaguely they might have been simmering in his brain, he could not honestly accuse himself of having ever bestowed any reflection on “the higher parts of Judaism” or even on the religious convictions apart from the racial aspects of his future wife.  Could it be that Hannah’s earnestness was infecting him?