The dark city was taking in a
great provision of its own coldness against the summer months.
Unorna looked about her. Everywhere there were people at work, and she
was more disappointed than she would own to herself at the invasion of
the solitude. The Wanderer looked from the stone-cutters to the ice-men
with a show of curiosity.
"I have not seen so much life in Prague for many a day," he observed.
"Let us go," answered Unorna, nervously. "I do not like it. I cannot
bear the sight of people to-day."
They turned in a new direction, Unorna guiding her companion by a
gesture. They were near to the Jewish quarter, and presently were
threading their way through narrow and filthy streets thronged with
eager Hebrew faces, and filled with the hum of low-pitched voices
chattering together, not in the language of the country, but in a base
dialect of German. They were in the heart of Prague, in that dim quarter
which is one of the strongholds of the Israelite, whence he directs
great enterprises and sets in motion huge financial schemes, in which
Israel sits, as a great spider in the midst of a dark web, dominating
the whole capital with his eagle's glance and weaving the destiny of the
Bohemian people to suit his intricate speculations. For throughout the
length and breadth of Slavonic and German Austria the Jew rules, and
rules alone.
Unorna gathered her furs more closely about her, in evident disgust at
her surroundings, but still she kept on her way.
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