Even now he could not quite believe that his father was in earnest.

It could hardly be possible that the work of his own hands should be taken from him because he had chosen a bride for himself! But this he felt, that should his father persevere in the intention which he had expressed, he would be upheld in it by every Jew of Prague.

"Dark, ignorant, and foolish," Anton said to himself, speaking of those among whom he lived; "it is their pride to live in disgrace, while all the honours of the world are open to them if they chose to take them!" He did not for a moment think of altering his course of action in consequence of what his father had said to him.

Indeed, as regarded the business of the house, it would stand still altogether were he to alter it.

No successor could take up the work when he should leave it.