"Where have you been so late, papa?" Flora inquired.
"Deep in the earth. You care much where your papa is, do you?" he snarled.
"Papa!" she said deprecatingly; "are you mad?"
He made no response.
"Have you been to the Mariv service?" Shaya intervened. "I studied at the Souvalk Synagogue to-day."
Asriel remained grimly uncommunicative.
The young people, reinforced by Tamara, made several other attempts at conversation, but the dogged taciturnity of the head of the family cast a spell of misery over them all, and the meal passed in unsupportable silence.
"See if papa ain't getting on to what you are doing, Shayie," Flora said, when the two were alone.
"Pshaw! is it the first time you see him out of humor? He must have had some trouble with a tenant or janitor."
"He must have," she assented gloomily. "But what if he gets wind? I'm worrying the life out of myself about it."