He was thinking of the writing of Michael the Senior, of which the old great-grandmother alone knew the whereabouts. He thought also that if he could only find it he would know what to say and how to act.
In the meantime Saul sat for a long time, breathing heavily from weariness, and sighing from grief. He looked several times at his mother and smiled. The intervention of this silent, continually dozing, hundred-year-old-woman for her great-grandson, seemed strange to him, and perhaps in the bottom of his heart he was grateful to her for not permitting him to wrong his orphan grandson in a moment of anger.
After a while he called: "Raphael."
The call was answered by a dignified dark-eyed man, already growing gray—his oldest son. After Saul he was the oldest of the family. He himself had grown-up grandchildren and was doing a very large business. On hearing his father call him he left his office and came to him immediately.
"Do you know if Eli Witebski is home?" asked Saul.
"Yes, he returned home yesterday," answered his son.
"Someone must go there at once and tell him that I wish to see him, and talk with him about an important matter."
"I will go myself," said Raphael; "I know about what you are going to talk with Witebski. You have an excellent idea, and it must be executed immediately. Meir may go astray if he is not married soon."
Saul's eyes searched his son's face inquiringly. "Raphael, do you think he will change when he is married?"
Raphael nodded his head affirmatively.