Page:Meir Ezofovitch a novel, from the Polish of Eliza Orzeszko.djvu/233

Rh "How can you know all thia? Howean you understand these things? I do not believe you.”

"How do I know and understand it. Zeide, I have been brought up in your house, where many people come to see you; Jewa and Christians, merchants and lords, rich and poor. They talked with you and I listened. Why should I not understand?" Saul was silent, and his troubled countenance betrayed many conflicting thoughts. A sudden anger toward the grandson stirred his blood.

Your spirit is full of restlessness, and yon carry trouble with you wherever you go. I felt so happy to-day until my eye fell upon you and black care entered with yon into the room."
 * © You understand too much! you are too inquisitive.

Meir hung his head.

"Zeide," he said sadly, "why do you reproach me? It is not about my own affairs I came to you."

"And what right have you to meddle with affairs that are net your own?" said Saul, with hesitation in his voice.

"They are our own, zeide. Kemionker is an Israelite, and as such ought not to cast a slur on our race; besides, they are our own, still more because your eon, zeide, Abram belongs to it."

"My son Abram?"

Saul rose suddenly from the sofa and fell back again. Then he fixed his penetrating eyes upon Meir.

"Are you speaking the truth?” he asked, sternly.

"I have seen and heard it all myself," whispered Meir.

Saul remained thinking a long time.

"Well," he said, slowly, "you have the right to accuse