But he had been content to wait--to wait, to think, to dream, and only in part to hope.

He still communed with himself daily as to that House of Trendellsohn which might, perhaps, be heard of in cities greater than Prague, and which might rival in the grandeur of its wealth those mighty commercial names which had drowned the old shame of the Jew in the new glory of their great doings.

To be a Jew in London, they had told him, was almost better than to be a Christian, provided that he was rich, and knew the ways of trade--was better for such purposes as were his purposes.

Anton Trendellsohn believed that he would be rich, and was sure that he knew the ways of trade; and therefore he nursed his ambition, and meditated what his action should be when the days of his freedom should come to him.
Then Nina Balatka had come across his path.

To be a Jew, always a Jew, in all things a Jew, had been ever a part of his great dream.