Costa's lovely daughter. Her face floated in the moonlight. Manasseh shrugged his shoulders, unappeased. "When one has supped well, it is always a beautiful night," he said testily. It was as if the cloud had overspread the moon, and a thick veil had fallen over the face of da Costa's lovely daughter. But Yankelé recovered himself quickly. "Ah, yes," he said, "you have indeed made it a beaudiful night for me." The King of Schnorrers waved his staff deprecatingly. "It is alvays a beaudiful night ven I am mid you," added Yankelé, undaunted. "It is strange," replied Manasseh musingly, "that I should have admitted to my hearth and Grobstock's table one who is, after all, but a half-brother in Israel." "But Grobstock is also a Tedesco," protested Yankelé. "That is also what I wonder at," rejoined da Costa. "I cannot make out how I have come to be so familiar with him." "You see!" ventured the Tedesco timidly. "P'raps ven Grobstock had really had a girl you might even have come to marry her." [54] [54] "Guard your tongue! A Sephardi cannot marry a Tedesco! It would be a degradation." "Yes—but de oder vay round. A Tedesco can marry a Sephardi, not so? Dat is a rise. If Grobstock's daughter had married you, she vould have married above her," he ended, with an ingenuous air. "True," admitted Manasseh. "But then, as Grobstock's daughter does not exist, and my wife does—!" "Ah, but if you vas me," said Yankelé, "vould you rader marry a Tedesco or a Sephardi?" "A Sephardi, of course. But—" "I vill be guided by you," interrupted the Pole hastily. "You be de visest man I have ever known." "But—" Manasseh repeated.
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