to say.

Her father had hit upon the truth — and how many times had her father's wisdom known the truths of life... Today is the end of the month, and he will come to visit her; what news will he bring her? She will not ask him; she will wait for what he says...

He came in the afternoon, and she sat facing him while he told her of her mother and her brothers, and she listened anxiously. Suddenly he fell silent, then said:

"Aliyya. There is news here that must be told."

She cried out:

— "Has some harm come to him? What has happened?"

— "No harm has come to him, but he has washed his hands of you. You will not see him after today. So he asked me to tell you."

— Her hands froze in the air, then fell into her lap, and her tears began to flow in silence...

— "Would that you had brought me news of his death, father. That would have been better"..

Then a cruel fire flared in her breast and she cried out, sobbing:

— "Father, I want to speak to him — tell him to come"..

And when the old man kept silent, she raised her head to him and added:

— "No. I am mad. I do not want him to come. He is a weak coward who releases himself from his promises"..

She felt her father's hand on her shoulder and pressed her mouth to it, sobbing like a child..

— "Aliyya, come; you shall not serve after today."

She shook her head hard.

— "You are wretched here, my daughter."

She did not answer, did not move; she stayed silent until he bade her farewell and went, forgetting to take her wages as he did at the end of every month.

•

Month follows month, year folds up year, and misery stretches on, solid as the stretch of time...

A dryness moistened by tears, and tears dried by fire...

— My God, be with me, and let me accustom myself to humiliation..

One afternoon she stood on the kitchen floor, alone in the house, gazing into space..

— "Aliyya"!..

She opened the door and saw him.. in his flesh and blood..

— "What do you want?"

He stood before her, bewil-dered, hesitant..

— "Speak, and be brief. I will listen to you."

— "I have sinned against you, and I have no right to speak..

A tremor in his voice shook her heart to its depths.. an abject tremor she had never once heard in his voice..

— "Speak. Pardon is some-times permitted."

— "No. I did not come to ask pardon, but to drop a weight from my shoulders.. I have a child. His mother was a poor woman I took