She was about to rise and pursue her journey, when somebody called her by her name. She turned round and shuddered, for the person who called her was Tzifra. She had never been able to look at Tzifra without a shudder. She knew the man. She knew that he was the cause of any cruelty which Viola's comrades had ever committed; and, however much she loved her husband, she felt uncomfortable, and disgusted, whenever she saw him in Tzifra's company. Viola had of late suspected Tzifra, and Susi remembered that her husband had often called him his Judas. These circumstances will serve to explain the fear with which the poor woman beheld the robber, who, leaning on his staff, looked down at her with a strange smile, which gave a still more repulsive expression to his features. "Where are you bound to?" said he.
"I'm going to see the Gulyash at Kishlak."
"Running after your husband, I dare say? Possibly the Gulyash knows where he is. What news is there in your village?"
"You ought to know it," replied Susi. "They tell me you were there with my husband?"
"Do you mean to say with Viola? Why, was he in the village?"
"Are you indeed ignorant of that robbery—you know, at the notary's?"
"Ah! I understand they've sacked his house. Well, didn't I say as much? When they told me that Viola came to the house, I knew the affair would end in a robbery. There isn't the like of Viola in three counties; there's no joking with him!"
"Don't talk in this way! I'll never believe that Viola had a hand in it."
"All I know is, that I don't know any thing about it—but who can have done it?"
"They say you did it."