visit the
vaults and did not find the spirits--he would be held answerable and
punished. Then he hired two people. Zeide! he tempted two miserable
outcasts to--"

"Hush!" exclaimed Saul, in a low voice. "Be quiet; do not say a word
more. I can guess the rest."

The old man's hands trembled, and his shaggy eyebrows bristled in a
heavy frown.

Meir was silent, and looked with expectant eyes at his grandfather.

"Your mouth has spoken what is not true. It cannot be true."

"Zeide!" whispered Meir, "it is as true as the sun in heaven. Have
you not heard, zeide, of the incidents that happened last year and
last year but one? These incidents are getting more and more
numerous, and every true Israelite deplores it and reddens with
shame."

"How can you know all this? How can you understand these things? I do
not believe you."

"How do I know and understand it? Zeide, I have been brought up in
your house, where many people come to see you: Jews and Christians,
merchants and lords, rich and poor. They talked with you and I
listened. Why should I not understand?"

Saul was silent, and his troubled countenance betrayed many
conflicting thoughts. A sudden anger toward the grandson stirred his
blood.

"You understand too much. You are too inquisitive. Your spirit is
full of restlessness, and you carry trouble with you wherever you go.
I felt so happy to-day until my eye fell upon you, and black care
entered with you into the room."

Meir hung his head.

"Zeide," he said sadly, "why do you reproach me? It is not
about my own affairs I came to you."

"And what right have you to meddle with affairs that are not your
own?" said Saul, with hesitation in his voice.

"They are our own, zeide. Kamionker is an Israelite, and as such
ought not to cast a slur on our race; besides, they are our own,
still more because your son, zeide, Abraham belongs to it."

Saul rose suddenly from the sofa and fell back again. Then he fixed
his penetrating eyes upon Meir.

"Are you speaking the truth?" he asked sternly.

"I have seen and heard it all myself," whispered Meir.

Saul remained thinking a long time.

"Well," he said slowly, "you have the right to accuse your uncle. He
is your father's brother, and from his deed shame and ignominy might
come upon our house. The family of Ezofowich never did dishonourable
things. I shall forbid Abraham to have anything to do with it."

"Zeide, tell also Kamionker and Kalman not to do it."