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diff --git a/22663.txt b/22663.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..652c7c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/22663.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1706 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Ghetto Violet, by Leopold Kompert + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Ghetto Violet + From "Christian and Leah" + +Author: Leopold Kompert + +Translator: A. S. Arnold + +Release Date: September 18, 2007 [EBook #22663] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GHETTO VIOLET *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +A GHETTO VIOLET + +By Leopold Kompert + +From "Christian and Leah." Translated by A. S. Arnold. + +1869 + + +Through the open window came the clear trill of a canary singing +blithely in its cage. Within the tidy, homely little room a pale-faced +girl and a youth of slender frame listened intently while the bird sang +its song. The girl was the first to break the silence. + +"Ephraim, my brother!" she said. + +"What is it, dear Viola?" + +"I wonder does the birdie know that it is the Sabbath to-day?" + +"What a child you are!" answered Ephraim. + +"Yes, that 's always the way; when you clever men can't explain a +thing, you simply dismiss the question by calling it childish," Viola +exclaimed, as though quite angry. "And, pray, why should n't the bird +know? The whole week it scarcely sang a note: to-day it warbles and +warbles so that it makes my head ache. And what's the reason? Every +Sabbath it's just the same, I notice it regularly. Shall I tell you what +my idea is? + +"The whole week long the little bird looks into our room and sees +nothing but the humdrum of work-a-day life. To-day it sees the bright +rays of the Sabbath lamp and the white Sabbath cloth upon the table. +Don't you think I 'm right, Ephraim?" + +"Wait, dear Viola," said Ephraim, and he went to the cage. + +The bird's song suddenly ceased. + +"Now you 've spoilt its Sabbath!" cried the girl, and she was so excited +that the book which had been lying upon her lap fell to the ground. + +Ephraim turned towards her; he looked at her solemnly, and said quietly: + +"Pick up your prayer-book first, and then I 'll answer. A holy book +should not be on the ground like that. Had our mother dropped her +prayer-book, she would have kissed it.... Kiss it, Viola, my child!" + +Viola did so. + +"And now I 'll tell you, dear Viola, what I think is the reason why the +bird sings so blithely to-day.... Of course, I don't say I 'm right." + +Viola's brown eyes were fixed inquiringly upon her brother's face. + +"How seriously you talk to-day," she said, making a feeble attempt at +a smile. "I was only joking. Must n't I ask if the bird knows anything +about the Sabbath?" + +"There are subjects it is sinful to joke about, and this may be one of +them, Viola." + +"You really quite frighten me, Ephraim." + +"You little goose, I don't want to frighten you," said Ephraim, while a +faint flush suffused his features. "I 'll tell you my opinion about +the singing of the bird. I think, dear Viola, that our little canary +knows... that before long it will change its quarters." + +"You 're surely not going to sell it or give it away?" cried the girl, +in great alarm; and springing to her feet, she quickly drew her brother +away from the cage. + +"No, I 'm not going to sell it nor give it away," said Ephraim, whose +quiet bearing contrasted strongly with his sister's excitement "Is it +likely that I should do anything that would give you pain? And yet, I +have but to say one word... and I 'll wager that you will be the first +to open the cage and say to the bird, 'Fly, fly away, birdie, fly away +home!'" + +"Never, never!" cried the girl. + +"Viola," said Ephraim beseechingly, "I have taken a vow. Surely you +would not have me break it?" + +"A vow?" asked his sister. + +"Viola," Ephraim continued, as he bent his head down to the girl's face, +"I have vowed to myself that whenever he... our father... should return, +I would give our little bird its freedom. It shall be free, free as he +will be." + +"Ephraim!" + +"He is coming--he is already on his way home." + +Viola flung her arms round her brother's neck. For a long time brother +and sister remained locked in a close embrace. + +Meanwhile the bird resumed its jubilant song. + +"Do you hear how it sings again?" said Ephraim; and he gently stroked +his sister's hair. "It knows that it will soon be free." + +"A father out of jail!" sobbed Viola, as she released herself from her +brother's arms. + +"He has had his punishment, dear Viola!" said Ephraim softly. + +Viola turned away. There was a painful silence, and then she looked +up at her brother again. Her face was aglow, her eyes sparkled with a +strange fire; she was trembling with agitation. + +Never before had Ephraim seen her thus. + +"Ephraim, my brother," she commenced, in that measured monotone so +peculiar to intense emotion, "with the bird you can do as you please. +You can set it free, or, if you like, you can wring its neck. But as +for him, I 'll never look in his face again, from me he shall not have +a word of welcome. He broke our mother's heart... our good, good mother; +he has dishonored himself and us. And I can never forget it." + +"Is it right for a child to talk like that of her own father?" said +Ephraim in a tremulous voice. + +"When a child has good cause to be ashamed of her own father!" cried +Viola. + +"Oh, my Viola, you must have forgotten dear mother's dying words. Don't +you remember, as she opened her eyes for the last time, how she gathered +up her failing strength, and raising herself in her bed, 'Children,' +she said, 'my memory will protect you both, yea, and your father too.' +Viola, have you forgotten?" + +Had you entered that little room an hour later, a touching sight would +have met your eyes. Viola was seated on her brother's knee, her arms +round his neck, whilst Ephraim with the gentle love of a brother for a +younger sister, was stroking her hair, and whispering in her ear sweet +words of solace. + +The bird-cage was empty.... That evening Ephraim sat up till midnight. +Outside in the Ghetto reigned the stillness of night. + +All at once Ephraim rose from his chair, walked to the old bureau which +stood near the door, opened it, and took from it a bulky volume, which +he laid upon the table in front of him. But he did not seem at all bent +upon reading. He began fingering the pages, until he came upon a bundle +of bank-notes, and these he proceeded to count, with a whispering +movement of his lips. He had but three or four more notes still to +count, when his sharp ear detected the sound of stealthy footsteps, +in the little courtyard in front of the house. Closing the book, and +hastily putting it back again in the old bureau, Ephraim sprang to the +window and opened it. + +"Is that you, father?" he cried. + +There was no answer. + +Ephraim repeated his question. + +He strained his eyes, peering into the dense darkness, but no living +thing could he see. Then quite close to him a voice cried: "Make no +noise... and first put out the light." + +"Heavens! Father, it is you then...!" Ephraim exclaimed. + +"Hush!" came in a whisper from without, "first put out the light." + +Ephraim closed the window, and extinguished the light Then, with +almost inaudible step, he walked out of the room into the dark passage; +noiselessly he proceeded to unbolt the street-door. Almost at the same +moment a heavy hand clasped his own. + +"Father, father!" Ephraim cried, trying to raise his parent's hand to +his lips. + +"Make no noise," the man repeated, in a somewhat commanding tone. + +With his father's hand in his, cautiously feeling his way, Ephraim +led him into the room. In the room adjoining lay Viola, sleeping +peacefully.... + +Time was when "Wild" Ascher's welcome home had been far otherwise. +Eighteen years before, upon that very threshold which he now crossed +with halting, stealthy steps, as of a thief in the night, stood a fair +and loving wife, holding a sturdy lad aloft in her arms, so that the +father might at once see, as he turned the street corner, that wife and +child were well and happy. Not another Ghetto in all Bohemia could show +a handsomer and happier couple than Ascher and his wife. "Wild" Ascher +was one of those intrepid, venturesome spirits, to whom no obstacle is +so great that it cannot be surmounted. And the success which crowned +his long, persistent wooing was often cited as striking testimony to his +indomitable will. Gudule was famous throughout the Ghetto as "the girl +with the wonderful eyes," eyes--so the saying ran--into which no man +could look and think of evil. During the earlier years of their married +life those unfathomable brown eyes exercised on Ascher the full power of +their fascination. A time came, however, when he alleged that those very +eyes had been the cause of all his ruin. + +Gudule's birthplace was far removed from the Ghetto, where Ascher had +first seen the light. Her father was a wealthy farmer in a secluded +village in Lower Bohemia. But distant though it was from the nearest +town of any importance, the solitary grange became the centre of +attraction to all the young swains far and near. But there was none +who found favor in Gudule's eyes save "Wild Ascher," in spite of many a +friendly warning to beware of him. One day, just before the betrothal of +the young people, an anonymous letter was delivered at the grange. +The writer, who called himself an old friend, entreated the farmer to +prevent his dear child from becoming the wife of one who was suspected +of being a gambler. The farmer was of an easy-going, indulgent nature, +shunning care and anxiety as a very plague. Accordingly, no sooner had +he read the anonymous missive than he handed it to his daughter, as +though its contents were no concern of his. + +When Gudule had read the letter to the end, she merely remarked: +"Father, this concerns me, and nobody else." + +And so the matter dropped. + +Not until the wedding-day, half an hour before the ceremony, when the +marriage canopy had already been erected in the courtyard, did +the farmer sum up courage to revert to the warning of the unknown +letter-writer. Taking his future son-in-law aside, he said: + +"Ascher, is it true that you gamble?" + +"Father," Ascher answered with equal firmness, "Gudule's eyes will save +me!" Ascher had uttered no untruth when he gave his father-in-law this +assurance. He spoke in all earnestness, for like every one else he knew +the magnetic power of Gudule's eyes. + +Nowhere, probably, does the grim, consuming pestilence of gaming claim +more victims than in the Ghetto. The ravages of drink and debauchery are +slight indeed; but the tortuous streets can show too many a humble home +haunted by the spectres of ruin and misery which stalked across the +threshold when the _first card game_ was played. + +It was with almost feverish anxiety that the eyes of the Ghetto were +fixed upon the development of a character like Ascher's; they followed +his every step with the closest attention. Long experience had taught +the Ghetto that no gambler could be trusted. + +As though conscious that all eyes were upon him, Ascher showed himself +most punctilious in the discharge of even the minutest of communal +duties which devolved upon him as a denizen of the Ghetto, and his +habits of life were almost ostentatiously regular and decorous. His +business had prospered, and Gudule had borne him a son. + +"Well, Gudule, my child," the farmer asked his daughter on the day when +his grandson was received into the covenant of Abraham,--"well, Gudule, +was the letter right?" + +"What letter?" asked Gudule. + +"That in which your husband was called a gambler." + +"And can you still give a thought to such a letter?" was Gudule's +significant reply. + +Three years later, Gudule's father came to visit her. This time she +showed him his second grandchild, her little Viola. He kissed the +children, and round little Viola's neck clasped three rows of pearls, +"that the child may know it had a grandfather once." + +"And where are your pearls, Gudule?" he asked, "those left you by your +mother,--may she rest in peace! She always set such store by them." + +"Those, father?" Gudule replied, turning pale; "oh, my husband has taken +them to a goldsmith in Prague. They require a new clasp." + +"I see," remarked her father. Notwithstanding his limited powers of +observation, it did not escape the old man's eyes that Gudule looked +alarmingly wan and emaciated. He saw it, and it grieved his very soul. +He said nothing however: only, when leaving, and after he had kissed the +_Mezuza_* he said to Gudule (who, with little Viola in her arms, went +with him to the door), in a voice quivering with suppressed emotion: +"Gudule, my child, the pearl necklet which I have given your little +Viola has a clasp strong enough to last a hundred years... you need +never, therefore, give it to your husband to have a new clasp made for +it." + + * Small cylinder inclosing a roll of parchment inscribed + with the Hebrew word _Shadai_ (Almighty) and with other + texts, which is affixed to the lintel of every Jewish house. + +And without bestowing another glance upon his child the easy-going man +left the house. It was his last visit. Within the year Gudule received +a letter from her eldest brother telling her that their father was dead, +and that she would have to keep the week of mourning for him. Ever since +his last visit to her--her brother wrote--the old man had been somewhat +ailing, but knowing his vigorous constitution, they had paid little heed +to his complaints. It was only during the last few weeks that a marked +loss of strength had been noticed. This was followed by fever and +delirium. Whenever he was asked whether he would not like to see Gudule, +his only answer was: "She must not give away the clasp of little Viola's +necklet." And but an hour before his death, he raised his voice, and +loudly called for "the letter." Nobody knew what letter. "Gudule knows +where it is," he said, with a gentle shake of his head. Those were the +last words he spoke. + +Had the old man's eyes deceived him on the occasion of his last visit +to his son-in-law's house? No! For, setting aside the incident of the +missing pearls, the whole Ghetto could long since have told him that the +warning of the anonymous letter was not unfounded--for Gudule was the +wife of a gambler. + +With the resistless impetuosity of a torrent released from its prison +of ice and snow, the old invincible disease had again overwhelmed its +victim. Gudule noticed the first signs of it when one day her husband +returned home from one of his business journeys earlier than he had +arranged. Gudule had not expected him. + +"Why did you not come to meet me with the children?" he cried peevishly; +"do you begrudge me even that pleasure?" + +"_I_ begrudge you a pleasure?" Gudule ventured to remark, as she raised +her swimming eyes to his face. + +"Why do you look at me so tearfully?" he almost shouted. + +Ascher loved his wife, and when he saw the effect which his rough words +had produced, he tenderly embraced her. "Am I not right, Gudule?" he +said, "after a man has been working and slaving the livelong week, don't +you think he looks forward with longing eyes for his dear children to +welcome him at his door?" + +At that moment Gudule felt the long latent suspicion revive in her that +her husband was not speaking the truth. As if written in characters of +fire, the words of that letter now came back to her memory; she knew now +what was the fate that awaited her and her children. + +Thenceforward, all the characteristic tokens of a gambler's life, all +the vicissitudes which attend his unholy calling, followed close upon +each other in grim succession. Most marked was the disturbance which +his mental equilibrium was undergoing. Fits of gloomy despondency were +succeeded, with alarming rapidity, by periods of tumultuous exaltation. +One moment it would seem as though Gudule and the children were to him +the living embodiment of all that was precious and lovable, whilst +at other times he would regard them with sullen indifference. It soon +became evident to Gudule that her husband's affairs were in a very +bad way, for her housekeeping allowance no longer came to her with its +wonted regularity. But what grieved and alarmed her most, was the fact +that Ascher was openly neglecting every one of his religious duties. To +return home late on Friday night, long after sunset had ushered in the +Sabbath, was now a common practice. Once even it happened, that with his +clothes covered with dust, he came home from one of his business tours +on a Sabbath morning, when the people in holiday attire were wending +their way to the synagogue. + +Nevertheless, not a sound of complaint escaped Gudule's lips. Hers was +one of those proud, sensitive natures, such as are to be met with +among all classes and amid all circumstances of life, in Ghetto and in +secluded village, no less than among the most favored ones of the earth. +Had she not cast to the winds the well-intentioned counsel given her in +that unsigned letter? Why then should she complain and lament, now that +the seed had borne fruit? She shrank from alluding before her husband to +the passion which day by day, nay, hour by hour, tightened its hold upon +him. She would have died sooner than permit the word "gambler" to pass +her lips. Besides, did not her eyes tell Ascher what she suffered? Those +very eyes were, according to Ascher, the cause of his rapid journey +along the road to ruin. + +"Why do you look at me so, Gudule?" he would testily ask her, at the +slightest provocation. + +Often when, as he explained, he had had "a specially good week," he +would bring home the costliest gifts for his children. Gudule, however, +made no use whatever of these trinkets, neither for herself nor for the +children. She put the things away in drawers and cupboards, and never +looked at them, more especially as she observed that, under some pretext +or another, Ascher generally took those glittering things away again, +"in order to exchange them for others," he said: as often as not never +replacing them at all. + +"Gudule!" he said one day, when he happened to be in a particularly good +humor, "why do you let the key remain in the door of that bureau where +you keep so many valuables?" + +And again Gudule regarded him with those unfathomable eyes. + +"There, you 're... looking at me again!" he exclaimed with sudden +vehemence. + +"They 're safe enough in the cupboard," Gudule said, smiling, "why +should I lock it?" + +"Gudule, do you mean to say..." he cried, raising his hand as for a +blow. Then he fell back in his chair, and his frame was shaken with +sobs. + +"Gudule, my heart's love," he cried, "I am not worthy that your eyes +should rest on me. Everywhere, wherever I go, they look at me, those +eyes... and that is my ruin. If business is bad, your eyes ask me, 'Why +did you mix yourself up with these things, without a thought of wife +or children?'... Then I feel as if some evil spirit possessed me and +tortured my soul. Oh, why can't you look at me again as you did when you +were my bride?--then you looked so happy, so lovely! At other times I +think: 'I shall yet grasp fortune with both hands... and then I can face +my Gudule's eyes again.' But now, now... oh, don't look at me, Gudule!" + +There spoke the self-reproaching voice, which sometimes burst forth +unbidden from a suffering soul. + +As for Gudule, she already knew how to appreciate this cry of her +husband's conscience at its true value. It was not that she felt one +moment's doubt as to its sincerity, but she knew that so far as it +affected the future, it was a mere cry and nothing more. + +The years rolled on. The children were growing up. Ephraim had entered +his fifteenth year. Viola was a little pale girl of twelve. In the +opinion of the Ghetto they were the most extraordinary children in the +world. In the midst of the harassing life to which her marriage with +the gambler had brought her, Gudule so reared them that they grew to be +living reflections of her own inmost being. People wondered when they +beheld the strange development of "Wild" Ascher's children. + +Their natures were as proud and reserved as that of their mother. They +did not associate with the youth of the Ghetto; it seemed as though +they were not of their kind, as though an insurmountable barrier divided +them. And many a bitter sneer was hurled at Gudule's head. + +"Does she imagine," she often heard people whisper, "that because her +father was a farmer her children are princes? Let her remember that her +husband is but a common gambler." + +How different would have been their thoughts had they known that the +children were Gudule's sole comfort. What their father had never heard +from her, she poured into their youthful souls. No tear their mother +shed was unobserved by them; they knew when their father had lost, and +when he had won; they knew, too, all the varying moods of his unhinged +mind; and in this terrible school of misery they acquired an instinctive +intelligence, which in the eyes of strangers seemed mere precocity. + +The two children, however, had early given evidence of a marked +difference in disposition. Ephraim's nature was one of an almost +feminine gentleness, whilst Viola was strong-willed and proudly +reserved. + +"Mother," she said one day, "do you think he will continue to play much +longer?" + +"Viola, how can you talk like that?" Ephraim cried, greatly disturbed. + +Thereupon Viola impetuously flung her arms round her mother's neck, +and for some moments she clung to her with all the strength of her +passionate nature. It was as though in that wild embrace she would fain +pour forth the long pent-up sorrows of her blighted childhood. + +"Mother!" she cried, "you are so good to him. Never, never shall he have +such kindness from me!" + +"Ephraim," said Gudule, "speak to your sister. In her sinful anger, +Viola would revenge herself upon her own father. Does it so beseem a +Jewish child?" + +"Why does he treat you so cruelly, then?" Viola almost hissed the words. + +Soon after fell the final crushing blow. Ascher had been away from home +for some weeks, when one day Gudule received a letter, dated from a +prison in the neighborhood of Vienna. + +In words of genuine sympathy the writer explained that Ascher had been +unfortunate enough to forge the signature to a bill. She would not +see him again for the next five years. God comfort her! The letter was +signed: "A fellow-sufferer with your husband." + +As it had been with her old father, after he had bidden her a last +farewell, so it was now with Gudule. From that moment her days were +numbered, and although not a murmur escaped her lips, hour by hour she +wasted away. + +One Friday evening, shortly after the seven-branched Sabbath lamp had +been lit, Gudule, seated in her arm-chair, out of which she had not +moved all day, called the two children to her. A bright smile hovered +around her lips, an unwonted fire burned in her still beautiful eyes, +her bosom heaved... in the eyes of her children she seemed strangely +changed. "Children," said she, "come and stand by me. Ephraim, you stand +here on my right, and you, dear Viola, on my left. I would like to tell +you a little story, such as they tell little children to soothe them to +sleep. Shall I?" + +"Mother!" they both cried, as they bent towards her. + +"You must not interrupt me, children," she observed, still with that +strange smile on her lips, "but leave me to tell my little story in my +own way. + +"Listen, children," she resumed, after a brief pause. "Every human +being--be he ever so wicked--if he have done but a single good deed +on earth, will, when he arrives above, in the seventh heaven, get his +_Sechus_, that is to say, the memory of the good he has done here below +will be remembered and rewarded bountifully by the Almighty." Gudule +ceased speaking. Suddenly a change came over her features: her breath +came and went in labored gasps; but her brown eyes still gleamed +brightly. + +In tones well-nigh inaudible she continued: "When Jerusalem, the Holy +City, was destroyed, the dead rose up out of their graves... the holy +patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob... and also Moses, and Aaron his +brother... and David the King... and prostrating themselves before God's +throne they sobbed: 'Dost Thou not remember the deeds we have done?... +Wouldst Thou now utterly destroy all these our children, even to the +innocent babe at the breast?' But the Almighty was inexorable. + +"Then Sarah, our mother, approached the Throne... When God beheld +her, He covered His face, and wept. 'Go,' said He, 'I cannot listen to +thee.'... But she exclaimed... 'Dost Thou no longer remember the tears I +shed before I gave birth to my Joseph and Benjamin... and dost Thou +not remember the day when they buried me yonder, on the borders of the +Promised Land... and now, must mine eyes behold the slaughter of my +children, their disgrace, and their captivity?'... Then God cried: 'For +_thy_ sake will I remember thy children and spare them.'..." + +"Would you like to know," Gudule suddenly cried, with uplifted voice, +"what this _Sechus_ is like? It has the form of an angel, and it stands +near the Throne of the Almighty.... But, since the days of Rachel, our +mother, it is the _Sechus_ of a mother that finds most favor in God's +eyes. When a mother dies, her soul straightway soars heavenward, and +there it takes its place amid the others. + +"'Who art thou?' asks God, 'I am the _Sechus_ of a mother,' is the +answer, 'of a mother who has left children behind her on earth.' 'Then +do thou stand here and keep guard over them!' says God. And when it is +well with the children, it is the _Sechus_ of a mother which has caused +them to prosper, and when evil days befall them... it is again the Angel +who stands before God and pleads: 'Dost Thou forget that these children +no longer have a mother?'... and the evil is averted...." + +Gudule's voice had sunk to a mere whisper. Her eyes closed, her head +fell back, her breathing became slower and more labored. "Are you still +there, children?" she softly whispered. + +Anxiously they bent over her. Then once again she opened her eyes, +"I see you still"--the words came with difficulty from her blanched +lips--"you, Ephraim, and you, my little Viola.... I am sure my _Sechus_ +will plead for you... for you and your father." They were Gudule's last +words. When her children, whose eyes had never as yet been confronted +with Death, called her by her name, covering her icy hands with burning +kisses, their mother was no more.... + +Who can tell what influence causes the downtrodden blade to raise itself +once more! Is it the vivifying breath of the west wind, or a mysterious +power sent forth from the bosom of Mother Earth? It was a touching sight +to see how those two children, crushed as they were beneath the +weight of a twofold blow, raised their heads again, and in their very +desolation found new-born strength. And it filled the Ghetto with +wonder. For what were they but the offspring of a gambler? Or was it the +spirit of Gudule, their mother, that lived in them? + +After Gudule's death, her eldest brother, the then owner of the grange, +came over to discuss the future of his sister's children. He wished +Ephraim and Viola to go with him to his home in Lower Bohemia, where he +could find them occupation. The children, however, were opposed to the +idea. They had taken no previous counsel together, yet, upon this point, +both were in perfect accord,--they would prefer to be left in their old +home. + +"When father comes back again," said Eph-raim, "he must know where to +find us. But to you, Uncle Gabriel, he would never come." + +The uncle then insisted that Viola at least should accompany him, for he +had daughters at home whom she could assist in their duties in the house +and on the farm. But the child clung to Ephraim, and with flaming eyes, +and in a voice of proud disdain, which filled the simple farmer with +something like terror, she cried: + +"Uncle, you have enough to do to provide for your own daughters; don't +let _me_ be an additional burden upon you; besides, sooner would I +wander destitute through the world than be separated from my brother." + +"And what do you propose to do then?" exclaimed the uncle, after he had +somewhat recovered from his astonishment at Viola's vehemence. + +"You see, Uncle Gabriel," said Ephraim, a sudden flush overspreading his +grief-stricken features, "you see I have thought about it, and I have +come to the conclusion that this is the best plan. Viola shall keep +house, and I... I 'll start a business." + +"_You_ start a business?" cried the uncle with a loud laugh. "Perhaps +you can tell me what price I 'll get for my oats next market day? A +business!... and _what_ business, my lad?" + +"Uncle," said Ephraim, "if I dispose of all that is left us, I shall +have enough money to buy a small business. Others in our position have +done the same... and then..." + +"Well, and then?" the uncle cried, eagerly anticipating his answer. + +"Then the _Sechus_ of our mother will come to our aid," Ephraim said +softly. + +The farmer's eyes grew dim with moisture; his sister had been very dear +to him. + +"As I live!" he cried, brushing his hand across his eyes, "you are true +children of my sister Gudule. That's all _I_ can say." + +Then, as though moved by a sudden impulse, he quickly produced, from +the depths of his overcoat, a heavy pocketbook. "There!"... he cried, +well-nigh out of breath, "there are a hundred gulden for you, Ephraim. +With that you can, at all events, make a start; and then you need n't +sell the few things you still have. There... put the money away... oats +have n't fetched any price at all to-day, 't is true; but for the sake +of Gudule's children, I don't mind what I do... Come, put it away, +Ephraim... and may God bless you, and make you prosper." + +"Uncle!" cried Ephraim, as he raised the farmer's hand to his lips, "is +all this to be mine? All this?" + +"Yes, my boy, yes; it _is_ a deal of money is n't it?"... said Gudule's +brother, accompanying his words with a sounding slap on his massive +thigh. "I should rather think it is. With that you can do something, at +all events... and shall I tell you something? In Bohemia the oat crop +is, unfortunately, very bad this season. But in Moravia it's splendid, +and is two groats cheaper.... So there's your chance, Ephraim, my child; +you 've got the money, buy!" All at once a dark cloud overspread his +smiling face. + +"It's a lot of money, Ephraim, that I am giving you... many a merchant +can't lay his hands on it," he said, hesitatingly; "but if... you were +to... gam--" + +The word remained unfinished, for upon his arm he suddenly felt a +sensation as of a sharp, pricking needle. + +"Uncle Gabriel!" cried Viola--for it was she who had gripped his +arm--and the child's cheeks were flaming, whilst her lips curled with +scorn, and her white teeth gleamed like those of a beast of prey. "Uncle +Gabriel!" she almost shrieked, "if you don't trust Ephraim, then take +your money back again... it's only because you are our mother's brother +that we accept it from you at all.... Ephraim shall repay you to the +last farthing.... Ephraim doesn't gamble... you sha 'n't lose a single +penny of it." + +With a shake of his head the farmer regarded the strange child. He felt +something like annoyance rise within him; an angry word rose to the lips +of the usually good tempered man. But it remained unsaid; he was unable +to remove his eyes from the child's face. + +"As I live," he muttered, "she has Gudule's very eyes." + +And with another thumping slap on his leg, he merrily exclaimed: + +"All right, we'll leave it so then.... If Ephraim does n't repay me, +I 'll take _you_, you wild thing... for you've stood surety for your +brother, and then I 'll take you away, and keep you with me at home. Do +you agree... you little spit-fire, eh?" + +"Yes, uncle!" cried Viola. + +"Then give me a kiss, Viola." + +The child hesitated for a moment, then she laid her cheek upon her +uncle's face. + +"Ah, now I 've got you, you little spit-fire," he cried, kissing her +again and again. "Are n't you ashamed now to have snapped your uncle up +like that?" + +Then after giving Ephraim some further information about the present +price of oats, and the future prospects of the crops, with a side-shot +at the chances of wool, skins, and other merchandise, he took his leave. + +There was great surprise in the Ghetto when the barely fifteen-year-old +lad made his first start in business. Many made merry over "the great +merchant," but before the year was ended, the sharp-seeing eyes of the +Ghetto saw that Ephraim had "a lucky hand." Whatever he undertook he +followed up with a calmness and tact which often baffled the restless +activity of many a big dealer, with all his cuteness and trickery. +Whenever Ephraim, with his pale, sad face, made his appearance at a +farmstead, to negotiate for the purchase of wool, or some such matter, +it seemed as though some invisible messenger had gone before him to +soften the hearts of the farmers. "No one ever gets things as cheap as +you do," he was assured by many a farmer's wife, who had been won by the +unconscious eloquence of his dark eyes. No longer did people laugh at +"the little merchant," for nothing so quickly kills ridicule as success. + +When, two years later, his Uncle Gabriel came again to see how the +children were getting on, Ephraim was enabled to repay, in hard cash, +the money he had lent him. + +"Oho!" cried Gudule's brother, with big staring eyes, as he clutched his +legs with both hands, "how have you managed in so short a time to save +so much? D' ye know that that 's a great deal of money?" + +"I 've had good luck, uncle," said Ephraim, modestly. + +"You 've been... playing, perhaps?" + +The words fell bluntly from the rough countryman, but hardly had they +been uttered, when Viola sprang from her chair, as though an adder had +stung her. "Uncle," she cried, and a small fist hovered before Gabriel's +eyes in such a threatening manner that he involuntarily closed them. But +the child, whose features reminded him so strongly of his dead sister, +could not make him angry. + +"Ephraim," he exclaimed, in a jocund tone, warding off Viola with his +hands, "you take my advice. Take this little spit-fire with you into +the village one day... they may want a young she-wolf there." Then he +pocketed the money. + +"Well, Ephraim," said he, "may God bless you, and grant you further +luck. But you won't blame me if I take the money,--I can do with it, and +in oats, as you know, there's some chance of good business just now. But +I am glad to see that you 're so prompt at paying. Never give too much +credit! That 's always my motto; trust means ruin, and eats up a man's +business, as rats devour the contents of a corn-barn." + +There was but one thing that constantly threw its dark shadow across +these two budding lives,--it was the dark figure in a distant prison. +This it was that saddened the souls of the two children with a gloom +which no sunshine could dispel. When on Fridays Ephraim returned, +fatigued and weary from his work, to the home over which Viola presided +with such pathetic housewifely care, no smile of welcome was on her +face, no greeting on his. Ephraim, 't is true, told his sister where he +had been, and what he had done, but in the simplest words there vibrated +that tone of unutterable sadness which has its constant dwelling-place +in such sorely-tried hearts. + +Meanwhile, a great change had come over Viola. Nature continues her +processes of growth and development 'mid the tempests of human grief, +and often the fiercer the storm the more beautiful the after effects. +Viola was no longer the pale child, "the little spit-fire," by whom her +Uncle Gabriel's arm had been seized in such a violent grip. A womanly +gentleness had come over her whole being, and already voices were heard +in the _Ghetto_ praising her grace and beauty, which surpassed even the +loveliness of her dead mother in her happiest days. Many an admiring +eye dwelt upon the beautiful girl, many a longing glance was cast in the +direction of the little house, where she dwelt with her brother. But +the daughter of a "gambler," the child of a man who was undergoing +imprisonment for the indulgence of his shameful vice! That was a picture +from which many an admirer shrank with horror! + +One day Ephraim brought home a young canary for his sister. When he +handed her the bird in its little gilt cage, her joy knew no bounds, and +showering kisses by turns upon her brother, and on the wire-work of the +cage, her eyes sparkling with animation: + +"You shall see, Ephraim, how I 'll teach the little bird to speak," she +cried. + +The softening influence which had, during the last few months, come over +his sister's nature was truly a matter of wonder to Ephraim. Humbly +and submissively she accepted the slightest suggestion on his part, as +though it were a command. He was to her a father and mother, and never +were parents more implicitly obeyed by a child than this brother by a +sister but three years his junior. + +There was one subject, however, upon which Ephraim found his sister +implacable and firm--their absent father, the mere mention of whose name +made her tremble. Then there returned that haughty curl of the lips, and +all the other symptoms of a proud, inflexible spirit It was evident that +Viola hated the man to whom she owed her existence. + +Thus had it come about that Ephraim was almost afraid to pronounce his +father's name. Neither did he care to allude to their mother before +Viola, for the memory of her death was too closely bound up with that +dark form behind the distant prison walls. + + +Let us now return to the night on which Ephraim opened the door to his +father. How had it come about? A thousand times Ephraim had thought +about his father's return--and now he durst not even kindle a light, to +look upon the long-estranged face. As silent as when he had come, Ascher +remained during the rest of the night; he had seated himself at the +window, and his arm was resting upon the very spot where formerly the +cage had stood. The bird had obtained its freedom, and was, no doubt, by +this time asleep, nestling amid the breeze-swept foliage of some wooded +glen. _He_ too had regained his liberty, but no sleep closed his eyes, +and yet he was in safe shelter, in the house of his children. + +At length the day began to break. The sun was still hiding behind the +mountain-tops, but its earliest rays were already reflected upon the +window-panes. In the _Ghetto_ footsteps became audible; here and there +the grating noise of an opening street-door was heard, while from round +the corner resounded, ever and anon, the hammer of the watchman, calling +the people to morning service; for it was a Fast-day, which commenced at +sunrise. + +At that moment Ascher raised himself from his chair, and quickly turned +away from the window. Ephraim was already by his side. "Father, dear +father!" he cried from the inmost depths of his heart, as he tried to +grasp the hand of the convict. + +"Don't make such a noise," said the latter, casting a furtive glance in +the direction of the window, and speaking in the same mysterious whisper +in which he had asked for admittance into the house. + +What a strange awakening it was to his son, when, in the gray +twilight of the breaking day, he looked at Ascher more closely. In his +imagination Ephraim had pictured a wan, grief-worn figure, and now he +saw before him a strong, well-built man, who certainly did not present +the appearance of a person who had just emerged from the dank atmosphere +of a prison! On the contrary, he seemed stronger and more vigorous than +he had appeared in his best days. + +"Has he had such a good time of it...?" Ephraim felt compelled to ask +himself... "how different our poor mother looked!" + +With a violent effort he repressed the feelings which swelled his bosom. +"Dear father," he said, with tears in his eyes, "make yourself quite +comfortable; you have n't closed your eyes the whole night, you must be +worn out. You are at home, remember... father!" + +"It's all right," said Ascher, with a deprecating gesture, "_we_ fellows +know other ways of spending the night." + +"_We fellows!_" The words cut Ephraim to the heart. + +"But you may be taken ill, father," he timidly observed. + +"I taken ill! What do you take me for?" Ascher laughed, boisterously. "I +have n't the slightest intention of failing ill." + +At that moment the watchman was heard hammering at the door of the next +house. The reverberating blows seemed to have a strangely disquieting +effect upon the strong man; a violent tremor seized him; he cast one of +the frightened glances which Ephraim had noticed before in the direction +of the window, then with one bound he was at the door, and swiftly +turned the knob. + +"Father, what 's the matter?" Ephraim cried, much alarmed. + +"Does the watchman look into the room when he passes by?" asked Ascher, +while his eyes almost burst from their sockets, with the intent-ness of +their gaze. + +"Never," Ephraim assured him. + +"Let me see, wait..." whispered Ascher. + +The three well-known knocks now resounded upon their own door, then the +shadow of a passing figure was thrown upon the opposite wall. With a +sigh of relief, the words escaped Ascher's bosom: + +"He did not look inside..." he muttered to himself. + +Then he removed his hand from the door-knob, came back into the centre +of the room, and approaching the table, rested his hand upon it. + +"Ephraim..." he said after a while, in that suppressed tone which seemed +to be peculiar to him, "are n't you going to synagogue?" + +"No, father," replied Ephraim, "I 'm not going to-day." + +"But they 'll want to know," Ascher observed, and at the words an ugly +sneer curled the corners of his lip; "they 'll want to know who your +guest is. Why don't you go and tell them?" + +"Father!" cried Ephraim. + +"Then be good enough to draw down the blinds.... What business is it of +theirs who your guest is? Let them attend to their own affairs.... But +they would n't be of 'the chosen race' if they did n't want to know what +was taking place in the furthermost corner of your brain. You can't be +too careful with them... you 're never secure against their far-scenting +noses and their sharp, searching eyes." + +It was now broad daylight. Ephraim drew down the blinds. + +"The blinds are too white..." Ascher muttered, and moving a chair +forward, he sat down upon it with his back to the window. + +Ephraim proceeded to wind the phylacteries round his arm, and commenced +to say his prayers softly. + +His devotions over, he hurriedly took the phylacteries from his head and +hand. + +Ascher was still sitting immovable, his back to the window, his eyes +fixed upon the door. + +"Why don't you ask me where I 've left my luggage?" he suddenly cried. + +"I 'll fetch it myself if you 'll tell me where it is," Ephraim +remarked, in all simplicity. + +"Upon my word, you make me laugh," cried Ascher, and a laugh like that +of delirium burst from his lips. "All I can say, Ephraim, is, the most +powerful giant upon earth would break his back beneath the weight of my +luggage!" + +Then only did Ephraim grasp his father's meaning. + +"Don't worry yourself, father..." he said lovingly. + +"Would you like to support me, perhaps!" Ascher shouted, with cutting +disdain. + +Ephraim's heart almost ceased to beat. Then movements were heard in the +adjoining room. + +"Have you any one with you?" cried Ascher, springing up. His sharp ears +had instantly caught the sounds, and again the strong man was seized +with violent trembling. + +"Father, it's only dear Viola," said Ephraim. + +A nameless terror seemed to have over-powered Ascher. With one hand +convulsively clenched upon the arm of the chair, and the other pressed +to his temple, he sat breathing heavily. Ephraim observed with alarm +what a terrible change had come over his father's features during the +last few seconds: his face had become ashen white, his eyes had lost +their lustre, he seemed to have aged ten years. + +The door opened, and Viola entered. + +"Viola!" cried Ephraim, "here is our--" + +"Welcome!" said the girl, in a low voice, as she approached a few steps +nearer. She extended her hand towards him, but her eyes were cast down. +She stood still for a moment, then, with a hurried movement, turned +away. + +"Gudule!" cried Ascher, horror-stricken, as he fell back almost +senseless in his chair. + +Was it the glamour of her maiden beauty that had so overpowered this +unhappy father? Or was it the extraordinary resemblance she bore to the +woman who had so loved him, and whose heart he had broken? The utterance +of her name, the terror that accompanied the exclamation, denoted the +effect which the girl's sudden appearance had produced upon that sadly +unhinged mind. + +"Viola!" Ephraim cried, in a sorrow-stricken voice, "why don't you come +here?" + +"I _can't_, Ephraim, I _can't_..." she moaned, as, with halting steps, +she walked towards the door. + +"Come, speak to him, do," Ephraim entreated, taking her hand in his. + +"Let me go!" she cried, trying to release herself.... "I am thinking of +mother!" + +Suddenly Ascher rose. + +"Where's my stick?" he cried. "I want the stick which I brought with +me.... Where is it? I must go." + +"Father, you won't..." cried Ephraim. + +Then Viola turned round. + +"Father," she said, with twitching lips... "you'll want something to eat +before you go." + +"Yes, yes, let me have something to eat," he shouted, as he brought his +fist down upon the table. "Bring me wine... and let it be good... I am +thirsty enough to drink the river dry.... Wine, and beer, and anything +else you can find, bring all here, and then, when I 've had my fill, I +'ll go." + +"Go, Viola," Ephraim whispered in his sister's ear, "and bring him all +he asks for." + +When Viola had left the room, Ascher appeared to grow calmer. He sat +down again leaning his arms upon the table. + +"Yes," he muttered to himself: "I 'll taste food with my children, +before I take up my stick and go.... They say it's lucky to have the +first drink of the day served by one's own child... and luck I _will_ +have again, at any price... What good children! While I 've been +anything but a good father to them, they run hither and thither and take +the trouble to get me food and drink, and I, I 've brought them home +nothing but a wooden stick. But I 'll repay them, so help me God, I 'll +make them rich yet, but I 've got nothing but a wooden stick, and I want +money, no play without money, and no luck either...." + +Gradually a certain thoughtfulness overspread Ascher's agitated +features, his lips were tightly compressed, deep furrows lined his +forehead, while his eyes were fixed in a stony glare, as if upon some +distant object. In the meantime Ephraim had remained standing almost +motionless, and it was evident that his presence in the room had quite +escaped his father's observation. With a chilling shudder running +through his frame, his hair on end with horror, he listened to the +strange soliloquy!... Then he saw his father's eyes travelling slowly in +the direction of the old bureau in the corner, and there they remained +fixed. "Why does he leave the key in the door, I wonder," he heard him +mutter between his teeth, "just as Gudule used to do; I must tell him +when he comes back, keys should n't be left in doors, never, under any +circumstances." The entrance of Viola interrupted the old gambler's +audible train of thought. + +Ephraim gave a gasp of relief. + +"Ah, what have you brought me?" cried Ascher, and his eyes sparkled +with animation, as Viola produced some bottles from under her apron, and +placed them and some glasses upon the table. + +"Now then, fill up the glass," he shouted, in a commanding voice, "and +take care that you don't spill any, or you 'll spoil my luck." + +With trembling hand Viola did as she was bidden, without spilling a +single drop. Then he took up the glass and drained it at one draught. +His face flushed a bright crimson: he poured himself out another glass. + +"Are n't you drinking, Ephraim?" he exclaimed, after he had finished +that glass also. + +"I don't drink to-day, father," Ephraim faltered, "it's a fast." + +"A fast? What fast? I have been fasting too," he continued, with a +coarse laugh, "twice a week, on bread and water; an excellent thing for +the stomach. Fancy, a fast-day in midsummer. On such a long day, when +the sun is up at three already, and at eight o'clock at night is still +hesitating whether he 'll go to bed or not... what have I got to do with +your Fast-day?" + +His face grew redder every moment; he had drunk a third and a fourth +glass, and there was nothing but a mere drain left in the bottle. +Already his utterance was thick and incoherent, and his eyes were +fast assuming that glassy brightness that is usually the forerunner of +helpless intoxication. It was a sight Ephraim could not bear to see. +Impelled by that natural, almost holy shame which prompted the son of +Noah to cover the nakedness of his father, he motioned to his sister to +leave. Then _he_, too, softly walked out of the room. + +Outside, in the corridor, the brother and sister fell into each other's +arms. Both wept bitterly: for a long time neither of them could find +words in which to express the grief which filled their souls. At length +Viola, her head resting upon Ephraim's shoulder, whispered: "Ephraim, +what do you think of him?" + +"He is ill, I think..." said Ephraim, in a voice choked with sobs. + +"What, you call _that_ illness, Ephraim?" Viola cried; "if that's +illness, then a wild beast is ill too." + +"Viola, for Heaven's sake, be quiet: he 's our own father after all!" + +"Ephraim!" said the girl, with a violent outburst of emotion, as she +again threw herself into her brother's arms... "just think if mother had +lived to see this!" + +"Don't, don't, Viola, my sweet!" Ephraim exclaimed, sobbing +convulsively. + +"Ephraim!" the girl cried, shaking her head in wild despair, "I don't +believe in the _Sechus!_ When we live to see all this, and our hearts do +not break, we lose faith in everything.... Ephraim, what is to become of +us?" + +"Hush, dear Viola, hush, you don't know what you are saying," replied +Ephraim, "I believe in it, because mother herself told us... you must +believe in it too." + +But Viola again shook her head. "I don't believe in it any longer," she +moaned, "I can't." + +Noiselessly, Ephraim walked toward the door of the front room; he placed +his ear against the keyhole, and listened. Within all was silent. A +fresh terror seized him. Why was no sound to be heard?... He opened the +door cautiously lest it should creak. There sat his father asleep in +the arm-chair, his head bent on his bosom, his arms hanging limp by his +side. + +"Hush, Viola," he whispered, closing the door as cautiously as he had +opened it, "he is asleep....I think it will do him good. Be careful that +you make no noise." + +Viola had seated herself upon a block of wood outside the kitchen door, +and was sobbing silently. In the meantime, Ephraim, unable to find a +word of solace for his sister, went and stood at the street door, so +that no unbidden guest should come to disturb his father's slumbers. +It was mid-day; from the church hard by streamed the peasants and their +wives in their Sunday attire, and many bestowed a friendly smile upon +the well-known youth. But he could only nod his head in return, his +heart was sore oppressed, and a smile at such a moment seemed to him +nothing short of sin. He went back into the house, and listened at the +door of the room. Silence still reigned unbroken, and with noiseless +steps he again walked away. + +"He is still sleeping," he whispered to his sister. "Just think what +would have happened if we had still had that bird.... He would n't have +been able to sleep a wink." + +"Ephraim, why do you remind me of it?" cried Viola with a fresh outburst +of tears. "Where is the little bird now, I wonder?..." + +Ephraim sat down beside his sister, and took her hand in his. Thus they +remained seated for some time, unable to find a word of comfort for each +other. + +At length movements were heard. Ephraim sprang to his feet and once more +approached the door to listen. + +"He is awake!" he softly said to Viola, and slowly opening the door, he +entered the room. + +Ascher was walking up and down with heavy tread. + +"Do you feel refreshed after your sleep, father?" Ephraim asked timidly. + +Ascher stood still, and confronted his son. His face was still very +flushed, but his eyes had lost their glassy stare; his glance was clear +and steady. + +"Ephraim, my son," he began, in a kindly, almost cheerful tone, "you 've +grown into a splendid business man, as good a business man as one can +meet with between this and Vienna. I 'm sure of it. But I must give you +one bit of advice; it 's worth a hundred pounds to one in your position. +Never leave a key in the lock of a bureau!" + +Ephraim looked at his father as though stupefied. Was the man mad or +delirious to talk in such a strain? At that moment, from the extreme end +of the _Ghetto_, there sounded the three knocks, summoning the people to +evening prayer. As in the morning, so again now the sound seemed to stun +the vigorous man. His face blanched and assumed an expression of terror; +he trembled from head to foot. Then again he cast a frightened glance in +the direction of the window. + +"Nothing but knocking, knocking!" he muttered. "They would like to knock +the most hidden thoughts out of one's brains, if they only could. What +makes them do it, I should like to know?... To the clanging of a bell +you can, at all events, shut your ears, you need only place your hands +to them... but with that hammer they bang at every confounded door, and +drive one crazy. Who gives them the right to do it, I should like to +know?" He stood still listening. + +"Do you think he will be long before he reaches here?" he asked Ephraim, +in a frightened voice. + +"Who, father?" + +"The watch." + +"He has already knocked next door but one." + +Another minute, and the three strokes sounded on the door of the house. +Ascher heaved a sigh of relief; he rubbed his hand across his forehead; +it was wet with perspiration. + +"Thank God!" he cried, as though addressing himself, "that 's over, and +won't come again till to-morrow." + +"Ephraim, my son!" he cried, with a sudden outburst of cheerfulness, +accompanying the words with a thundering bang upon the table, "Ephraim, +my son, you shall soon see what sort of a father you have. Now, you 're +continually worrying your brains, walking your feet off, trying to get a +skin, or praying some fool of a peasant to be good enough to sell you +a bit of wool. Ephraim, my son, all that shall soon be changed, take +my word for it. I 'll make you rich, and as for Viola, I 'll get her a +husband--such a husband that all the girls in Bohemia will turn green +and yellow with envy.... Ascher's daughter shall have as rich a dowry as +the daughter of a Rothschild.... But there 's one thing, and one thing +only, that I need, and then all will happen as I promise, in one night." + +"And what is that, father!" asked Ephraim, with a slight shudder. + +"Luck, luck, Ephraim, my son!" he shouted. "What is a man without luck? +Put a man who has no luck in a chest full of gold; cover him with gold +from head to foot; when he crawls out of it, and you search his pockets, +you 'll find the gold has turned to copper." + +"And will you have luck, father?" asked Ephraim. + +"Ephraim, my son!" said the old gambler, With a cunning smile, "I 'll +tell you something. There are persons whose whole powers are devoted to +one object--how to win a fortune; in the same way as there are some +who study to become doctors, and the like, so these study what we call +luck... and from them I 've learned it." + +He checked himself in sudden alarm lest he might have said too much, and +looked searchingly at his son. A pure soul shone through Ephraim's open +countenance, and showed his father that his real meaning had not been +grasped. + +"Never mind," he shouted loudly, waving his arms in the air, "what is to +come no man can stop. Give me something to drink, Ephraim." + +"Father," the latter faltered, "don't you think it will harm you?" + +"Don't be a fool, Ephraim!" cried Ascher, "you don't know my +constitution. Besides, did n't you say that to-day was a fast, when it +is forbidden to eat anything? And have I asked you for any food? But +as for drink, that's quite another thing! The birds of the air can't do +without it, much less man!" + +Ephraim saw that for that evening, at all events, it would not do to +oppose his father. He walked into the kitchen where Viola was preparing +supper, or rather breakfast, for after the fast this was the first meal +of the day. + +"Viola," he said, "make haste and fetch some fresh wine." + +"For him?" cried Viola, pointing her finger almost threateningly in the +direction of the sitting-room door. + +"Don't, don't, Viola!" Ephraim implored. + +"And you are fasting!" she said. + +"Am I not also fasting for him?" said Ephraim. + +With a full bottle in his hand Ephraim once more entered the room. He +placed the wine upon the table, where the glasses from which Ascher had +drunk in the morning were still standing. + +"Where is Viola?" asked Ascher, who was again pacing the room with firm +steps. + +"She is busy cooking." + +"Tell her she shall have a husband, and a dowry that will make half the +girls in Bohemia turn green and yellow with envy." + +Then he approached the table, and drank three brimming glasses, one +after the other. "Now then," he said, as with his whole weight he +dropped into the old arm-chair.... "Now I 'll have a good night's rest. +I need strength and sharp eyes, and they are things which only sleep +can give. Ephraim, my son," he continued after a while in thick, halting +accents... "tell the watch--Simon is his name, I think--he can give six +knocks instead of three upon the door, in the morning, he won't disturb +me... and to Viola you can say I 'll find her a husband, handsomer than +her eyes have ever beheld, and tell her on her wedding-day she shall +wear pearls round her neck like those of a queen--no, no, like those of +Gudule, her mother." A few moments later he was sound asleep. + +It was the dead of night. All round reigned stillness and peace, the +peace of night! What a gentle sound those words convey, a sound akin +only to the word _home!_ Fraught, like it, with sweetest balm, a +fragrant flower from long-lost paradise. Thou art at rest, Ascher, +and in safe shelter; the breathing of thy children is so restful, so +tranquil.... + +Desist! desist! 'T is too late. Side by side with the peace of night, +there dwell Spirits of Evil, the never-resting, vagrant, home-destroying +guests, who enter unbidden into the human soul! Hark, the rustling of +their raven-hued plumage! They take wing, they fly aloft; 't is the +shriek of the vulture, swooping down upon the guileless dove. + +Is there no eye to watch thee? Doth not thine own kin see thy foul +deeds? + +Desist! + +'T is too late.... + +Open is the window, no grating noise has accompanied the unbolting of +the shutter.... The evil spirits have taken care that the faintest sound +shall die away... even the rough iron obeys their voices... it is they +who have bidden: "Be silent; betray him not; he is one of us." + +Even the key in the door of the old bureau is turned lightly and without +noise. Groping fingers are searching for a bulky volume. Have they found +it? Is there none there to cry in a voice of thunder: "Cursed be the +father who stretches forth his desecrating hand towards the things that +are his children's"?... + +They _have_ found it, the greedy fingers! and now, but a spring through +the open window, and out into the night.... + +At that moment a sudden ray of light shines through a crack in the door +of the room.... Swiftly the door opens, a girlish figure appears on the +threshold, a lighted lamp in her hand. . . . + +"Gudule!" he shrieks, horror-stricken, and falls senseless at her feet. + +Ascher was saved. The terrible blow which had struck him down had not +crushed the life from him. He was awakened. But when, after four weeks +of gruesome fever and delirium, his mind had somewhat regained its +equilibrium, his hair had turned white as snow, and his children beheld +an old, decrepit man. + +That which Viola had denied her father when he returned to them in all +the vigor of his manhood, she now lavished upon him in his suffering and +helplessness, with that concentrated power of love, the source of which +is not human, but Divine. In the space of one night of terror, the +merest bud of yesterday had suddenly blossomed forth into a flower of +rarest beauty. Never did gentler hands cool a fever-heated brow, +never did sweeter voice mingle its melody with the gruesome dreams of +delirium. + +On his sick-bed, lovingly tended by Ephraim and Viola, an ennobling +influence gradually came over the heart of the old gambler, and so +deeply touched it, that calm peace crowned his closing days. It was +strange that the events of that memorable night, and the vicissitudes +that had preceded it, had left no recollection behind, and his children +took good care not to re-awaken, by the slightest hint, his sleeping +memory. + +A carriage drew up one day in front of Ascher's house. There has +evidently been a splendid crop of oats this year. Uncle Gabriel has +come. Uncle Gabriel has only lately assumed the additional character of +father-in-law to Ephraim, for he declared that none but Eph-raim should +be his pet daughter's husband. And now he has come for the purpose of +having a confidential chat with Viola. There he sits, the kind-hearted, +simple-minded man, every line of his honest face eloquent with +good-humor and happiness, still guilty of an occasional violent +onslaught upon his thighs. Viola still remains his "little spit-fire." + +"Now, Viola, my little spit-fire," said he, "won't you yet allow me +to talk to my Nathan about you? Upon my word, the boy can't bear the +suspense any longer." + +"Uncle," says Viola, and a crimson blush dyes her pale cheeks: "Uncle," +she repeats, in a tone of such deep earnestness, that the laughing +expression upon Gabriel's face instantly vanishes, "please don't talk to +him at all. My place is with my father!" + +And to all appearances Viola will keep her word. + +Had she taken upon herself a voluntary penance for having, in her +heart's bitter despair, presumed to abjure her faith in the _Sechus_ +of her mother? Or was there yet another reason? The heart of woman is a +strangely sensitive thing. It loves not to build its happiness upon the +hidden ruins of another's life. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Ghetto Violet, by Leopold Kompert + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GHETTO VIOLET *** + +***** This file should be named 22663.txt or 22663.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/6/22663/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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