But here he was interrupted by his fair physician, a smile which she could scarce suppress dimpling for an instant a face, whose general expression was that of contemplative melancholy. “I am of England , Sir Knight, and speak the English tongue, although my dress and my lineage belong to another climate.”

“Noble damsel,”⁠—again the Knight of Ivanhoe began; and again Rebecca hastened to interrupt him.

“Bestow not on me, Sir Knight,” she said, “the epithet of noble. It is well you should speedily know that your handmaiden is a poor Jewess, the daughter of that Isaac of York , to whom you were so lately a good and kind lord. It well becomes him, and those of his household, to render to you such careful tendance as your present state necessarily demands.”