return it to Malka, and she purchased all the
luxury of doing good, including the effusive benedictions of the whole
family, on terms usually obtainable only by professional almoners.

Then she told Debby of her luck with the publishers. Profound was
Debby's awe at the revelation that Esther was able to write stories
equal to those in the _London Journal_. After that, Debby gave up the
idea of Esther living or sleeping with her; she would as soon have
thought of offering a share of her bed to the authoresses of the tales
under it. Debby suffered scarce any pang when her one-night companion
transferred herself to Reb Shemuel's.

For it was to suggest this that Hannah had called. The idea was her
father's; it came to him when she told him of Esther's strange position.
But Esther said she was going to America forthwith, and she only
consented on condition of being allowed to pay for her keep during her
stay. The haggling was hard, but Esther won. Hannah gave up her room to
Esther, and removed her own belongings to Levi's bedroom, which except
at Festival seasons had been unused for years, though the bed was always
kept ready for him. Latterly the women had had to make the bed from time
to time, and air the room, when Reb Shemuel was at synagogue. Esther
sent her new address to her brothers and sisters, and made inquiries as
to the prospects of educated girls in the States. In reply she learned
that Rachel was engaged to be married. Her correspondents were too taken
up with this gigantic fact to pay satisfactory attention to her
inquiries. The old sense of protecting motherhood came back to Esther
when she learned the news. Rachel was only eighteen, but at once Esther
felt middle-aged. It seemed of the fitness of things that she should go
to America and resume her interrupted maternal duties. Isaac and Sarah
were still little more than children, perhaps they had not yet ceased
bickering about their birthdays. She knew her little ones would jump for
joy, and Isaac still volunteer sleeping accommodation in his new bed,
even though the necessity for it had ceased. She cried when she received
the cutting from the American Jewish paper; under other circumstances
she would have laughed. It was one of a batch headed "Personals," and
ran: "Sam Wiseberg, the handsome young drummer, of Cincinnati, has
become engaged to Rachel Ansell, the fair eighteen-year-old type-writer
and daughter of Moses Ansell, a well-known Chicago Hebrew. Li