"Of course I do."
"It was quite a good one."
"Ye-es," muttered the master, "a cloak, a palm; and life is a trickster."[1]
[1] A play on the words "tal'ma, cloak; pal'ma, palm; shelma, trickster.
"What are you talking about?" asked his wife, suspiciously.
"I? Oh, nothing in particular. Happy days and good people soon pass away."
"I don't know what is the matter with you," said my mistress, uneasily.
Then grandmother was taken to see the new baby, and while I was clearing away the dirty cups and saucers from the table the master said to me:
"She is a good old woman, that grandmother of yours."
I was deeply grateful to him for those words, and when I was alone with grandmother, I said to her, with a pain in my heart: