igure
of the young man, he said:

"Who is there?"

"Zeide," said Golda, "Meir Ezofowich, son of the rich Saul, has come
to our house to greet you."

At the sound of that name pronounced by Golda, he shrunk against the
wall, suddenly raised himself and leaning with both hands on the
straw sheaf on which he sat, he stretched forward his yellow neck,
swathed in rags. This brought near the flame a head covered with
long, abundant white hair, and a small shrivelled face which was
almost hidden by an enormous beard. Golda spoke the truth when she
stated that her grandfather's hair had become white as snow from old
age, and coral-like red were his eyes from weeping. Now, from beneath
these swollen eyelids, the quenched pupils looked with an amazement
of fear at first, and then with a sudden lighting of indignation or
hatred.

"Ezofowich!" he exclaimed in a voice which was neither so hoarse nor
so trembling as before, "why have you come here and passed the
threshold of my house? You are a Rabbinit--foe--persecutor. Your
great-grandfather cast an anathema at my ancestors and turned their
temple into dust. Go from here. My old eyes shall not be poisoned by
looking at you."

While speaking the last words he stretched his trembling hand toward
the door through which the young man had entered.

But Meir stepped forward slowly, and bending his head before the
angry old man said:

"Peace to you!"

Under the influence of those sweet words, pronounced with sonority
and expressing a prayer for a blessing and concord, the old man
became silent, fell back on his seat, and only after a long while did
he begin to speak in a plaintive, pitiful voice:

"Why did you come here? You are a Rabbinit, and the great-grandson of
the powerful Senior. Your people will curse you if they see you pass
my threshold, for I am the last Karaite who remained here to watch
the ruins of our temple and the ashes of our ancestors. I am a
beggar! I am cursed by your people! I am the last of the Karaites!"

Meir listened to the old man's words in respectful silence.

"Reb," said he after a while, "I bend my head low before you because
it is necessary that justice be done in the world, and that the
great-grandson of the one who cursed should bow before the
great-grandson of the accursed."

Abel Karait listened attentively to these words. Then he was silent
for a while, as though he was pondering in his tired mind, over the
meaning of them. Finally he