Spasmodic sobs came thickly now. Swallowing them down, she said, "And she—did she not ask thee to give me Get?"
"Nay, she was willing to go without. She said thou wast as one dead—look not thus at me. It is the will of God. It was for thy sake, too, Sarah, that she did not become my wife by law. She, too, would have spared thee the knowledge of her."
"Yes; ye have both tender hearts! She is a mother in Israel, and thou art a spark of our father Abraham."
"Thou dost not believe what I say?"
"I can disbelieve it, and still remain a Jewess."
Then, satire boiling over into passion, she cried vehemently, "We are threshing empty ears. Thinkest thou I am not aware of the Judgments—I, the granddaughter of Reb Shloumi (the memory of the righteous for a blessing)? Thinkest thou I am ignorant thou couldst not obtain a Get against me—me who have borne thee children, who have wrought no evil? I speak not of the Beth-Din, for in this impious country they are loath to follow the Judgments, and from the English Beth-Din thou wouldst find it impossible to obtain the Get in any case, even though thou didst not marry me in this country, nor according to its laws. I speak of our own Rabbonim—thou knowest even the Maggid would not give thee Get merely because thy wife is bed-ridden. That—that is what thou wast afraid of."
"But if thou art willing,—" he replied eagerly, ignoring her scornful scepticism.
His readiness to accept the sacrifice was salt upon her wounds.
"Thou deservest I should let thee burn in the lowest Gehenna," she cried.
"The Almighty is more merciful than thou," he answered. "It is He that hath ordained it is not good for man to live alone. And yet men shun me—people talk—and she—she may leave me to my loneliness again." His voice faltered with self-pity. "Here thou hast friends, nurses, visitors. I—I have nothing. True, thou didst bear me children, but they withered as by the evil eye. My only son is across the ocean; he hath no love for me or thee."