Now came the culminating act of the drama. Gitl was affectionately urged to hold out her hands, bringing them together at an angle, so as to form a receptacle for the fateful piece of paper. She obeyed mechanically, her cheeks turning ghastly pale. Jake, also pale to his lips, his brows contracted, received the paper, and obeying directions, approached the woman who in the eye of the Law of Moses was still his wife. And then, repeating word for word after the rabbi, he said:
“Here is thy divorce. Take thy divorce. And by this divorce thou art separated from me and free for all other men!”
Gitl scarcely understood the meaning of the formula, though each Hebrew word was followed by its Yiddish translation. Her arms shook so that they had to be supported by Mrs. Kavarsky and by one of the witnesses.
At last Jake deposited the writ and instantly drew back.
Gitl closed her hands upon the paper as she had been instructed; but at the same moment she gave a violent tremble, and with a heartrending groan fell on the witness in a fainting swoon.
In the ensuing commotion Jake slipped out of the room, presently followed by Mamie’s ambassador, who had remained behind to pay the bill.
Gitl was soon brought to by Mrs. Kavarsky and the mistress of the house. For a moment or so she sat staring about her, when, suddenly awakening to the meaning of the ordeal she had just been through, and finding Jake gone, she clapped her hands and burst into a fit of sobbing.
Meanwhile the rabbi had once again perused the writ, and having caused the witnesses to do likewise, he made two diagonal slits in the paper.
“You must not forget, my daughter,” he said to the young woman, who was at that moment crying as if her heart would break, “that you dare not marry again before ninety-one days, counting from to-day, go by; while you—where is he, the young man? Gone?” he asked with a frustrated smile and growing pale.