ts he saw Ber discussing the
prices of the cattle with the peasants. A little further on he saw
Raphael standing in the porch of a house, surrounded by merchants,
evidently talking and arranging business, as all their fingers were
in motion. To approach these two men, who, after his grandfather, had
the greatest, authority in the family, and engage them in private
talk was impossible. Meir saw that, and did not even try.

The sight of the motley crowd, where everybody was engaged upon some
business of his own, looked strange and unreal. His thoughts were so
different from any of the thoughts that moved that bustling multitude.

"Why should it trouble me?" he murmured. "What can I do?" And yet it
seemed to him impossible to wait in passive inactivity until a red
glare in the sky should announce that the nefarious design had been
accomplished.

"What wrong has the man ever done us?" he said to himself. He was
thinking of the owner of Kamionka.

His dull, listless eyes rested on the porch of Witebski's house, and
he saw the merchant himself standing and leisurely smoking a cigar.
He was looking at the lively scene with the eyes of a man who had
nothing whatever to do with it. The fact is, he dealt in timber,
which he bought in large quantities, from the estates; therefore the
fair had no special attraction for him. Besides, he considered
himself too refined and thought too highly of his own business to mix
with a crowd occupied with selling and buying corn or cattle.

Meir descended the steps and went towards Witebski, who, seeing him,
smiled and stretched out a friendly hand.

"A rare visitor! A rare visitor!" he exclaimed. "But I know you could
not come sooner to see the parents of your betrothed. We have heard
how your severe grandfather ordered you to sit in Bet-ha-Midrash to
read the Talmud. Well, it does not matter much; does it? The zeide is
a dear old man, and did not mean it unkindly, just as you did not
mean to do any wrong. Young people will now and then kick over the
traces. Come into the drawing-room; I will call my wife, and she will
make you welcome as a dear son-in-law."

The worldly-wise merchant spoke smilingly, and holding Meir by the
hand, led him into the drawing-room. There, before the green sofa, he
stood still, and looked into Meir's face and said:

"It is very praiseworthy, Meir, that you are bashful and shy of your
future wife. I was the same at your age, and all young men ought to
feel