"Poor Reb Saul, to have such a grandson!" The old man did not reply, but pressed his lips closer together.
More than an hour had elapsed ere Saul returned from his errand. He found all the elder members of the family in the same position as he had left them. Meir sat close to the easy-chair of the great-grandmother, who tightly clutched him by the coat sleeve.
Sarah met her father and relieved him of his hat and cloak.
"What news do you bring, father?" asked Raphael.
Saul breathed heavily, and looked gloomily on the floor.
"What could I bring from there," he said after a momentary silence, "but shame and humiliation? The hearts of Todros rejoices over the misfortune of the house of Ezofowich. Smiles, like reptiles, are writhing and crawling over his yellow face."
"And what did he say?" asked several voices. "He said he had been far too forbearing towards my godless, insolent grandson—that Reb Moshe, Kamionker, and all the people were urging him to sit in judgment upon Meir; at my intercession he would put off the trial until to-morrow after sunset, and said if Meir humbled himself and asked his and his people's pardon, the sentence would be less severe."
All eyes turned towards Meir.
"What do you say to it?" asked a chorus of voices.
Meir looked thoughtfully down.