Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/150

120 "There will be no bargain between us, Master Samuel, until Sarah becomes my wife; and that she won't be, if there is to be any difficulty about a rival. You know my object; I want to be a match for those haughty aristocrats, who now treat me with such vile contempt."

"And that is in your reach, André. Once married you will find the haughtiest Spaniards coming to your receptions."

"Where has your daughter been this evening?" asked André.

“To the synagogue with old Ammon, her companion.”

“Why do you make your daughter attend those services?" said André. "What good can they be to her?"

"I am a Jew,” replied the father, “and Sarah would not be my daughter if she did not fulfil the offices of our religion.”

A villainous rascal was Samuel the Jew. Trading in commodities of any kind, however questionable, he worthy to be a direct descendant of the Iscariot who betrayed his Master for thirty silver shekels. He had settled in Lima some ten years previously. Equally to please his taste and serve his interests he had chosen a residence on the outskirts of the suburb of San Lazaro, where he applied himself to the most unscrupulous practices. Gradually his home assumed more and more of luxury, till at length he had a mansion sumptuous in its furniture, a numerous retinue of servants, and such splendid equipages as only belonged to men of unbounded affluence.

When Samuel first took up his abode in Lima his daughter was eight years of age. Already graceful and captivating in her manner, she was the very idol of the Jew. Her beauty increased with her age, and attracted universal admiration, and before long it was generally understood that André Certa, the rich half-breed, was desperately smitten with her; what would have appeared inexplicable was that the sum of a hundred thousand piastres should be the price of Sarah's hand, but that part of the contract was a secret. Besides, it was a part of old Samuel's nature to make a profit out of the sentimental emotions just as though they were marketable products. Banker, usurer, broker, and ship-owner, he had a faculty for doing business with everyone who came in his way. The schooner Annunciation, which