“Nonsense. She won’t know me. She has not seen me for more than a year. Besides, I’ll wear my veil. Oh, I must see her; don’t oppose me, Olga, dear.”
The meeting took place on a secluded bit of lawn under a sky suffused with the lingering gold of a dying sunset. And sure enough, Ruchele was extremely shy of the lady in black. When Clara caught her in her arms passionately she set up a scream so loud that her mother wrenched her from her aunt’s embrace for fear of attracting a crowd from a neighboring lane.
A debate between Clara and Elkin was to take place in Orlovsky’s house the next evening. A few hours before the time set for the gathering Clara received an unexpected call from Elkin. This was their first meeting since her arrival, and she welcomed him with sincere cordiality. She respected him as her first teacher of socialism. As to his love for her, which could still be read in his eyes, it flattered her now.
“Well,” he said, trying to take a light tone, but betraying agitation. “There is some news in town. Clara Yavner has been seen about.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that Clara Yavner has been seen about,” he repeated with sarcastic articulation. And by way of putting a period to the sentence, he opened his lips into a lozenge-shaped sneer and leaned his head against the mass of hung-up clothes under which he sat on an oblong stool.
She was seated on another tabouret, with her back to the low window. His manner exasperated her. “But I have been out only once,” she retorted calmly, controlling her anger, “and then I was heavily veiled.”
“Well, could not some people have recognised you by your figure and carriage? I am sure I could. At any rate your cousin, Vigdoroff, was to see me a little while ago, for the express purpose of conveying this message to you, Clara. The gossips of Cucumber Market are whispering about your having been seen in town, ‘and in addition to truths no end of fibs are being told.’ Your mother is quite uneasy about it, and—well, Clara, at the risk of having it set down to a desire on my part to slip out of the debate, I should suggest that you take no further chances and leave Miroslav at once.”