I felt the colour flushing into my face but I was still silent; and after a moment in which, as I could see, the stern-natured Jew was summing me up as a woman of double life and evil character, he said:
"Then it is true? . . . Very well, you will understand that from this day you cease to be in my service."
All this time my eyes were down, but I was aware that somebody else had come into the room. It was Miriam, and she was trying to plead for me.
"Father . . ." she began, but, turning hotly upon her, the Jew cried passionately:
"Go away! A true daughter of Israel should know better than to speak for such a woman."
I heard the girl going slowly down the stairs, and then the Jew, stepping up to me and speaking more loudly than before, said:
"Woman, leave my house at once, before you corrupt the conscience of my child."
Again I became aware that some one had come into the room. It was Mrs. Abramovitch, and she, too, was pleading for me.
"Israel! Calm thyself! Do not give way to injustice and anger. On Shobbos morning, too!"
"Hannah," said the Jew, "thou speakest with thy mouth, not thy heart. The Christian doth not deny that she hath given thee a false name, and is the adulterous mother of a misbegotten child. If she were a Jewish woman she would be summoned before the Beth Din, and in better days our law of Moses would have stoned her. Shall she, because she is a Christian, dishonour a good Jewish house? No! The hand of the Lord would go out against me."