age.

When the Rabbi imperatively drove out his host's family--the
gray-headed sons, dignified matrons, and beautiful girls, Saul's gray
eyebrows quivered and bristled for a moment. Evidently his pride rose
within him.

"Rabbi," said he, in a muffled voice, and with a bow that was not as
low as the first one, "deign to take under my roof the place you
think the most comfortable."

He did not call his guest "prince"; he did not give him the name of
Nassi.

Rabbi Isaak looked t him gloomily, crossed the room, and sat on the
sofa. At that moment he was not bent; on the contrary, he sat bolt
upright, looking sharply into the face of the old man who sat
opposite to him.

"I have driven them out," said he, pointing to the door through which
the patriarch's family had made their exit. "Why did you gather them?
I wished to talk with you alone."

Saul was silent.

"I bring you news," again said the Rabbi quickly and gloomily. "Your
grandson Meir has not a clean soul. He is a kofrim (infidel)."

Saul still sat silent, only his frowning brows quivered nervously
above his faded eyes.

"He is a kofrim!" the Rabbi repeated loudly. "He speaks ugly words of
our religion, and he does not respect the sages. He violates the
Sabbath, and is friendly with the heretics."

"Rabbi!" began Saul.

"You must listen when I speak," interrupted the Rabbi.

The old man tightened his lips so that they disappeared under his
gray moustache.

"I came to tell you," continued Todros, "that it's your fault that
your grandson is bad. Why did you not permit the melamed to whip him
when he was in the heder, and did not want to study German, and
laughed at the melamed, and instigated the others to laugh at him?
Why did you send him to Edomita, living there among the gardens to
make him study the reading of the Gojs and also their writing and the
other abominations of the Edomites? Why did you not punish him when
he violated the Sabbath, and contradicted the melamed at your table?
Why did you spoil his soul with your sinful love? Why don't you force
him to study holy science? And why do you look on all his
abominations as though you were a blind man?"

This vehement speech tired the Rabbi, and panting, he rested.

Then old Saul began to talk:

"Rabbi, your soul must not be angry with me. I could not act
otherwise. This child is the son of my son--the youngest among my
children, and who disappeared very quickly from my eyes. When his
paren