He had done his commission, and the fewer words which he might have with the Jew after that the better.
On the following morning Nina was seated by her father's bedside, when her quick ear caught through the open door the sound of a footstep in the hall below.

She looked for a moment at the old man, and saw that if not sleeping he appeared to sleep.

She leaned over him for a moment, gave one gentle touch with her hand to the bed-clothes, then crept out into the parlour, and closed behind her the door of the bed-room.

When in the middle of the outer chamber she listened again, and there was clearly a step on the stairs.

She listened again, and she knew that the step was the step of her lover.