“Let’s go,” she whispered. “We should never have come. I should have known Marcelle would arrange some horrible drama.”

He was only too eager to leave. They retrieved their coats from a red bedroom and slipped out into the hall. But Novak must have missed Klara, and then heard the lift descending; or perhaps he had just decided he couldn’t bear the heat of the room any longer. When they emerged onto the sidewalk he was there on the balcony, calling out to Klara as she and Andras walked arm in arm down the street. Andras, far from feeling any triumph, was sick with empathy. It seemed just as likely that he himself might have been the one she was leaving behind forever, the one who’d been sent back to Hungary without her, and the feeling was so strong he had to sit down on a bench and put his head between his knees. It was a fresh shock to feel her close beside him, her gloved hand on his shoulder. They sat there on the bench in the cold for what seemed a long time, neither of them speaking a word.

ON A DAY of knifelike December wind, the Ligue Internationale Contre l’Antisemitisme staged a protest against the German foreign minister’s visit to Paris. Andras and Polaner and Rosen and Ben Yakov stood in a tight group of demonstrators outside the Élysée Palace, shouting slogans of protest against the French and German governments, waving signs-NO FRIENDSHIP WITH FASCISTS; VON RIBBENTROP GO HOME-and singing the Zionist songs they’d learned at earlier meetings of the Ligue, which Rosen had insisted they all join after the pogrom in Germany. That morning he had woken them at dawn to paint placards. There could be no excuse for passivity, he said as he dragged them from their beds, no excuse for lying around while Joachim von Ribbentrop prepared to sign a nonaggression treaty with France; Bonnet, the French foreign minister who had been so accommodating about Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland, had arranged it all. At Rosen’s they drank a pot of Turkish coffee and made a dozen signs, Rosen stirring the paint with a ruler and insisting they all breathe the fumes of revolution. Andras knew Rosen’s performance was largely for the benefit of his new copine, a Zionist nursing student whom he’d met that summer. The girl, Shalhevet, had joined them that morning to make the signs. She was tall and fierce-eyed, with a heartbreaking lock of white in her black hair; her occasional winks at Andras and Polaner and Ben Yakov suggested she knew how absurd Rosen could be, but she watched him with an admiration that betrayed her deeper feelings.

Though Andras had complained at being dragged from bed, he was glad to be called upon to do something more substantial than read the newspaper and lament its contents. As he stood outside the Élysée Palace holding his sign aloft, he thought of the young Grynszpan in Fresnes prison-what he must have been feeling at that moment, and whether or not he knew France was welcoming the German foreign minister that day. At noon, von Ribbentrop’s black limousine pulled up to the gates of the palace and was quickly ushered through. While the police watched warily and guarded the barricades around the palace, the Friendship Declaration was signed. There was nothing the protesters could have done to stop it from happening, but they’d made their feelings known. After the foreign minister had departed again, the Ligue marched all the way to the river, shouting and singing. And at the quai des Tuileries Andras and his friends broke away to end their afternoon at the Blue Dove, where the talk was not of politics but of their other favorite subject. Ben Yakov, it seemed, faced a terrible problem: Despite all his efforts, he’d only managed to save two thirds of the money he needed to bring his Florentine bride back to Paris -to steal her away, as Rosen said. And time was of the essence; they couldn’t wait any longer. In another month she would be married to the old goat to whom her parents had promised her.

Rosen knocked a fist against the table. “To arms, men,” he said. “At all costs, we must save girls from goats.”

Shalhevet agreed. “Yes, please,” she said. “Save girls from goats.”

“You people insist upon making a joke out of everything,” Ben Yakov said.

“It’s your own medicine, I’m afraid,” Polaner said.

“This is the most critical moment of my life,” Ben Yakov said. “I can’t lose Ilana. For four months I’ve been working like a dog to bring her here. Day and night, at school and at the library, trying to save every centime. I’ve thought about nothing but her. I’ve written her nearly every day. I’ve been as celibate as a monk.”

“Excuse me,” Rosen said. “What about the Carousel Dance Club last weekend? What were you doing there with Lucia if you’ve been celibate as a monk?”

“One lapse!” Ben Yakov said, raising his hands heavenward. “A farewell to bachelorhood.”

Andras shook his head. “You must know you’ll make a terrible husband,” he said. “You ought to wait a few years until your blood cools down.”

Ben Yakov frowned at his empty glass. “I’m in love with Ilana,” he said. “We can’t wait any longer. But I’m still missing a thousand francs. I can afford to get there and back, but I can’t afford her ticket.”

“What about your brother?” Polaner asked, turning to Andras. “Can he help?”

Tibor was coming to visit in three weeks; he would spend his winter holiday in Paris. He and Andras had been saving the money for months. Even Klara had contributed to Tibor’s ticket; she’d insisted that as Andras’s fiancée she had a right to do so. “I won’t let him give up his ticket,” Andras said. “Not even for Ben Yakov’s fiancée.”

“He wouldn’t have to give it up,” Rosen said. “Ben Yakov can afford to buy her ticket if he doesn’t have to get one of his own. And then Tibor could escort her. He would just have to get to Florence, that’s all.”

Ben Yakov rose from his chair. He put his hands to his head. “That’s brilliant,” he said. “My God. We could do it. It can’t cost much to get from Modena to Florence.”

“Wait a minute,” Andras said. “Tibor hasn’t agreed, and neither have I. How is this meant to work? He goes to Florence, and elopes with her in your place?”

“He’ll meet her at the train station and they’ll leave together,” Rosen said. “Isn’t that right, Ben Yakov? He would have to do nothing but show up in Florence.”

“But what about when she gets here?” Andras said. “She can’t just step off a train and marry you at once. Where will she stay before the wedding?”

Ben Yakov stared. “She’ll stay at my apartment, of course.”

“She’s an Orthodox girl, remember.”

“I’ll give her my room. I’ll come stay with one of you.”

“Not with me,” Rosen said, glancing sideways at Shalhevet.

“If Shalhevet is staying with you,” Ben Yakov said, “let Ilana stay at her place.”

“You can’t leave her all alone in a dormitory,” Shalhevet said. “She’ll be miserable.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Ben Yakov said.

“What about Klara?” Polaner asked. “Could Ilana stay with her?”

Andras set his chin on his hand. “I don’t know,” he said. “She’s preparing her students for their winter recital. It’s the busiest time of year.” And, though he didn’t say it aloud, there were aspects of the situation he knew Klara wouldn’t like. What business did they have importing a bride for Ben Yakov, their notorious scoundrel? The girl was running away from home to come to Paris; she had grown up in a close-knit Sephardic community in Florence, and was only nineteen years old. It was one thing to involve Tibor, but quite another to ask Klara to be an accomplice.

Polaner looked at Andras with concern. “What’s the matter?” he said.

“I’m not sure. Suddenly I find I’ve got doubts about all of this.”

“Please,” Ben Yakov said, putting a hand on Andras’s shoulder. “I’m begging you. Of all people, you have to understand my situation. You’ve struggled for the past year, and you’re happy now. Can’t you help me? I know I haven’t always acted like a gentleman, but you know how hard I’ve worked since I came back from Florence. I’ve done everything in my power to get that girl here.”