Ephraim looked at his father as though stupefied. Was the man mad or delirious to talk in such a strain? At that moment, from the extreme end of the Ghetto, there sounded the three knocks, summoning the people to evening prayer. As in the morning, so again now the sound seemed to stun the vigorous man. His face blanched and assumed an expression of terror; he trembled from head to foot. Then again he cast a frightened glance in the direction of the window.
“Nothing but knocking, knocking!” he muttered. “They would like to knock the most hidden thoughts out of one's brains, if they only could. What makes them do it, I should like to know?... To the clanging of a bell you can, at all events, shut your ears, you need only place your hands to them... but with that hammer they bang at every confounded door, and drive one crazy. Who gives them the right to do it, I should like to know?” He stood still listening.
“Do you think he will be long before he reaches here?” he asked Ephraim, in a frightened voice.
“Who, father?”
“The watch.”
“He has already knocked next door but one.”
Another minute, and the three strokes sounded on the door of the house. Ascher heaved a sigh of relief; he rubbed his hand across his forehead; it was wet with perspiration.
“Thank God!” he cried, as though addressing himself, “that 's over, and won't come again till to-morrow.”
“Ephraim, my son!” he cried, with a sudden outburst of cheerfulness, accompanying the words with a thundering bang upon the table, “Ephraim, my son, you shall soon see what sort of a father you have. Now, you 're continually worrying your brains, walking your feet off, trying to get a skin, or praying some fool of a peasant to be good enough to sell you a bit of wool. Ephraim, my son, all that shall soon be changed, take my word for it. I 'll make you rich, and as for Viola, I 'll get her a husband—such a husband that all the girls in Bohemia will turn green and yellow with envy.... Ascher's daughter shall have as rich a dowry as the daughter of a Rothschild.... But there 's one thing, and one thing only, that I need, and then all will happen as I promise, in one night.”
“And what is that, father!” asked Ephraim, with a slight shudder.