"Fallen in?"
"Pulled down," answers the beadle.
"Why?"
"On account of a fire-wall."
I did not understand what he meant.
We were both tired with walking, and we sat down on a seat at the street side.
The beadle explained:
"You see—according to law, if one house is not built far enough away from another, the roofs must be separated by a fire-wall. What the distance has to be, I don't know; their laws are incomprehensible; I should say, four ells or more.
"A fire-wall is with them a charm against fire. Well, this house was built by a very poor man, Yeruchem Ivànovker, a teacher, and he couldn't afford a fire-wall.
"Altogether, to tell the truth, he built without a foundation, and out of that, as you will hear presently, there came a lawsuit, at which his wife (peace be upon her) told the whole story, beginning after the custom of women-folk with the sixth day of creation. This is how it happened: