had such a one to sell at that price, and that it was a better
boat than the fishermen of those parts ever owned, for it was of
English build. Now it chanced that sitting alone that very day in her
hopelessness, Rachel had overheard a group of noisy young girls in
the street tell of a certain Jew, named Bernard Frank, who stood on
the jetty by the stores buying hair of the young maidens who would
sell to him, and of the great money he had paid to some of them, such
as they had never handled before.

And now, at this mention of the boat, and at the flash of hope that
came with it, Rachel remembered that she herself had a plentiful head
of hair, and how often it had been commended for its color and
texture, and length and abundance, in the days (now gone forever)
when all things were good and beautiful that belonged to the daughter
of the Governor. So, making some excuse to Stephen, she rose up, put
off her little house cap with the tassel, put on her large linen
head-dress, hurried out, and made for the wharf.

There in truth the Jew was standing with a group of girls about him.
And some of these would sell outright to him, and then go straightway
to the stores to buy filigree jewelry and rings, or bright-hued
shawls, with the price of their golden locks shorn off. And some
would hover about him between desire of so much artificial adornment
and dread of so much natural disfigurement, until, like moths, they
would fall before the light of the Jew's bright silver.

Rachel had reached the place at the first impulse of her thought, but
being there her heart misgave her, and she paused on the outskirts of
the crowd. To go in among these girls and sell her hair to the Jew
was to make herself one with the lowest and meanest of the town, but
that was not the fear that held her back. Suddenly the thought had
come to her that what she had intended to do was meant to win her
husband back to her, yet that she could not say what it was that had
won him for her at the first. And seeing how sadly the girls were
changed after the shears had passed over their heads, she could not
help but ask herself what it would profit her, though she got the
boat for her husband, if she lost him for herself? And thinking in
this fashion she was turning away with a faltering step, when the
Jew, seeing her, called to her, saying what lovely fair hair she had,
and asking would she part with it. There was no going back on her
purpose then, so facing i