"Golda," said the muffled voice from behind the window, "I came to see you because to-day there is a great darkness before my eyes, and I wished to look at you, that the world might become brighter to me."
"And why is it so dark to-day before your eyes?" asked the girl.
"A great sorrow has befallen me. Rabbi Todros has accused me of wrongdoing before my zeide, and my zeide wishes to marry me."
He became silent and dropped his eyes. The girl did not move. Not the slightest movement of her face or figure betrayed emotion—only her swarthy and sun-burned face grew white.
"To whom does your zeide wish to marry you?" she asked, and her voice had a gloomy sound.
"To Mera, the daughter of the merchant Witebski."
She shook her head.
"I don't know her."
Then she asked suddenly:
"Meir, are you going to marry her?"