Children of the Ghetto

in this house but thy mother's own cousin, I'll wash my hands of thee for ever. Go now! Go on! I can't afford any more, so it's useless waiting. Good-night, and tell thy father I wish him a happy Yontov, and I hope he'll lose no more children.'

She hustled the child into the Square and banged the door upon her, and Esther went about her mammoth marketing half-dazed, with an undercurrent of happiness, vaguely apologetic towards her father and his Providence.

Malka stooped down, picked up the clothes-brush from under the side-table, and strode silently and diagonally across the Square.

There was a moment's dread silence. The thunderbolt had fallen. The festival felicity of two households trembled in the balance. Michael muttered impatiently and went out on his wife's track.

'He's an awful fool,' said Ephraim. 'I should make her pay for her tantrums.'

The card party broke up in confusion. David Brandon took his leave and strolled about aimlessly under the stars, his soul blissful with the sense of a good deed that had only superficially miscarried. His feet took him to Hannah's house. All the windows were lit up. His heart began to ache at the thought that his bright, radiant girl was beyond that doorstep he had never crossed.

He pictured the love-light in her eyes; for surely she was dreaming of him, as he of her. He took out his watch-the time was twenty to nine. After all, would it be so outrageous to call? He went away twice. The third time, defying the convenances, he knocked at the door, his heart beating almost as loudly.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE SHADOW OF RELIGION.

The little servant girl who opened the door for him looked relieved by the sight of him, for it might have been the Rebbitzin returning from the Lane with heaps of supplies and an accumulation of ill-humor. She showed him into the study, and in a few moments Hannah hurried in with a big apron and a general flavor of the kitchen.

'How dare you come to-night?' she began, but the sentence died on her lips.

'How hot your face is,' he said, dinting the flesh fondly with his finger, 'I see my little girl is glad to have me back.'

'It's not that. It's the fire. I'm frying fish for Yomtov,' she said, with a happy laugh.

'And yet you say you're not a good Jewess,' he laughed back.

'You had no right to come and catch me like this,' she pouted. 'All greasy and dishevelled. I'm not made up to receive visitors.'

'Call me a visitor?' he grumbled. 'Judging by your appearance, I should say you were always made up. Why, you're perfectly radiant.'

Then the talk became less intelligible. The first symptom of returning rationality was her inquiry-

'What sort of a journey did you have back?'

'The sea was rough, but I'm a good sailor.'

'And the poor fellow's father and mother?'

'I wrote you about them.'

'So you did; but only just a line.'

'Oh, don't let us talk about the subject just now, dear, it's too painful. Come, let me kiss that little woe- begone look out of your eyes. There! Now, another-that was only for the right eye, this is for the left. But where's your mother?'

'Oh, you innocent!' she replied. 'As if you hadn't watched her go out of the house!'

''Pon my honor, not,' he said smiling. 'Why should I now? Am I not the accepted son-in-law of the house, you silly timid little thing? What a happy thought it was of yours to let the cat out of the bag. Come, let me give you another kiss for it-Oh, I really must. You deserve it, and whatever it costs me you shall be rewarded. There! Now, then! Where's the old man? I have to receive his blessing, I know, and I want to get it over.'

'It's worth having, I can tell you, so speak more respectfully,' said Hannah, more than half in earnest.

'You are the best blessing he can give me-and that's worth-well, I wouldn't venture to price it.'

'It's not your line, eh?'

'I don't know, I have done a good deal in gems; but where is the Rabbi?'

'Up in the bedrooms, gathering the Chomutz. You know he won't trust anybody else. He creeps under all the beds, hunting with a candle for stray crumbs, and looks in all the wardrobes and the pockets of all my dresses. Luckily, I don't keep your letters there. I hope he won't set something alight-he did once. And one year-Oh, it was so funny!-after he had ransacked every hole and corner of the house, imagine his horror, in the middle of Passover to find a crumb of bread audaciously planted-where do you suppose? In his Passover prayer-book!! But, oh!'-with a little scream-'you naughty boy! I quite forgot.' She took him by the shoulders, and peered along his coat. 'Have you brought any crumbs with you? This room's pesachdik already.'

He looked dubious.

She pushed him towards the door. 'Go out and give yourself a good shaking on the door-step, or else we shall have to clean out the room all over again.'

'Don't!' he protested. 'I might shake out that.'

'What?'

'The ring.'

She uttered a little pleased sigh.

'Oh, have you brought that?'

'Yes, I got it while I was away. You know I believe the reason you sent me trooping to the continent in such haste, was you wanted to ensure your engagement ring being 'made in Germany.' It's had a stormy passage to England, has that ring, I suppose the advantage of buying rings in Germany is that you're certain not to get Paris diamonds in them, they are so intensely patriotic, the Germans. That was your idea, wasn't it, Hannah?'

'Oh, show it me! Don't talk so much,' she said, smiling.

'No,' he said, teasingly. 'No more accidents for me! I'll wait to make sure-till your father and mother have taken me to their arms. Rabbinical law is so full of pitfalls-I might touch your finger this or that way, and then we should be married. And then, if your parents said 'no,' after all-'

'We should have to make the best of a bad job,' she finished up laughingly.

'All very well,' he went on in his fun, 'but it would be a pretty kettle of fish.'

'Heavens!' she cried, 'so it will be. They will be charred to ashes.' And turning tail, she fled to the kitchen, pursued by her lover. There, dead to the surprise of the servant, David Brandon fed his eyes on the fair incarnation of Jewish domesticity, type of the vestal virgins of Israel, Ministresses at the hearth. It was a very homely kitchen; the dressers glistening with speckless utensils, and the deep red glow of the coal over which the pieces of fish sputtered and crackled in their bath of oil, filling the room with a sense of deep peace and cosy comfort. David's imagination transferred the kitchen to his future home, and he was almost dazzled by the thought of actually inhabiting such a fairyland alone with Hannah. He had knocked about a great deal, not always innocently, but deep down at his heart was the instinct of well-ordered life. His past seemed joyless folly and chill emptiness. He felt his eyes growing humid as he looked at the frank-souled girl who had given herself to him. He was not humble, but for a moment he found himself wondering how he deserved the trust, and there was reverence in the touch with which he caressed her hair. In another moment the frying was complete, and the contents of the pan neatly added to the dish. Then the voice of Reb Shemuel crying for Hannah came down the kitchen stairs, and the lovers returned to the upper world. The Reb had a tiny harvest of crumbs in a brown paper, and wanted Hannah to stow it away safely till the morning, when, to make assurance doubly sure, a final expedition in search of leaven would be undertaken. Hannah received the packet and in return presented her betrothed.

Reb Shemuel had not of course expected him till the next morning, but he welcomed him as heartily as Hannah could desire.