She tried to swallow her fears, chiding herself for feeling them, doing
her best to close her ears to those rumbling, turbulent waters that
seemed to threaten as they tumbled along on their way.

Gradually as they neared the village that curious feeling of impending
evil became more strong: she could not help speaking of it to Andor, but
he only laughed in that delightfully happy--almost defiantly happy--way
of his, and for a moment or two she was satisfied.

But when at about half a kilometre from home she caught sight of Klara
Goldstein walking away from the village straight toward her and Andor,
it seemed as if her fears had suddenly assumed a more tangible shape.

Klara looked old and thin, she thought, pathetic, too, in her plain
black dress--she who used to be so fond of pretty clothes. Elsa gave her
a hearty greeting as soon as she was near enough to her, and extended a
cordial hand. She had no cause to feel well-disposed toward the Jewess,
but there was something so forlorn-looking about the girl now, and such
a look of sullen despair in her dark eyes, that Elsa's gentle nature was
at once ready to forgive and to cheer.

"It is a long time since I have seen you, Klara," she said pleasantly.

"No wonder," said the other girl, with a shrug of her thin shoulders,
"father won't let me out of his sight."

She had nodded to Andor, but by tacit consent they had not shaken hands.
Klara now put her hands on her hips, and, like a young animal let free
after days of captivity, she drew in deep breaths of sweet-scented air.

"Ah!" she said with a sigh, "it is good to be out again; being a
prisoner doesn't suit me, I can tell you that."

"Your dear father seems to be very severe with you, Klara," said Elsa
compassionately.

"Yes! curse him!" retorted the Jewess fiercely, as a savage, cruel look
flashed through her sunken eyes. "He nearly killed me when he came home
from Kecskemet that time--beat me like a dog--and now . . ."

"Poor Klara!"

"I shouldn't have minded the beating so much. Among our people, parents
have the right to be severe, and it is better to take a beating from
your father than to be punished by the rabbi."

"Your dear father will forgive you in time," suggested Elsa gently.

She felt miserably uncomfortable, and would have given worlds to be rid
of Klara. She couldn't think why the girl had stopped to talk to her and
Andor: in fact she was more than sure that Klara had come out this
evening