It was the natural course for her aunt to take, and a course in opposition to which Nina was prepared to stand her ground firmly.

But the allusion to the police did frighten her.

She had thought of the power which the law might have over her very often, and had spoken of it in awe to her lover.

He had reassured her, explaining to her that, as the law now stood in Austria, no one but her father could prevent her marriage with a Jew, and that he could only do so till she was of age.

Now Nina would be twenty-one on the first of the coming month, and therefore would be free, as Anton told her, to do with herself as she pleased.