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 she's more faithful to her husband than any of the others. We know what a man is.

Ah! Do you imagine they wouldn't recognize me right away? Their hearts would tell them. . . You know, my mother died from the shock. . . She couldn't live through it. . . To this day I haven't visited her grave. . . (Suddenly comes to a halt.) Sometimes she comes before me. . . At night I see her in my dreams. She appears to me in her shroud, covered with thorns and briers, because of my sins. And she pulls me by the hair.

Oh, mother! And did you really see her? How does she look, your dead mother? Is she pale?

Shut up, will you? Late at night they have to start telling stories about the dead. No dead people can come here. Our boss has a Holy Scroll upstairs. . . (A sudden hush.) What's wrong about our trade, I'd like to know? (She leaves her little room and goes into the cellar.) Wasn't our mistress in a house like this for fifteen years? Yet she married. And isn't she a respectable God-fearing woman? . . . Doesn't she observe all the laws that a Jewish daughter must keep? . . . And isn't her Rifkele a pure child? And isn't our boss a respectable man?