tage. More
than one village censor managed to acquaint the artist with the
flirtation ere he had found energy to walk the muddy mile to her
dwelling. Even his own mother came out strongly in disapproval of the
ancient dame; perhaps the remembrance of how fanatically her
mother-in-law had disapproved of her married head for not being
shrouded in a pious wig lent zest to her tongue. The artist controlled
his facial muscles, having learnt tolerance and Bohemianism in the
Eternal City.

'Old blood will have its way,' he said blandly.

'Yes, old blood's way is sometimes worse than young blood's,' said
Frau Schneemann, unsmiling. 'You must not forget that Yossel is still
a bachelor.'

'Yes, and therefore a sinner in Israel--I remember,' quoth the artist
with a twinkle. How all this would amuse his bachelor friends, Leopold
Barstein and Rozenoffski the pianist!

'Make not mock. 'Tis high time you, too, should lead a maiden under
the Canopy.'

'I am so shy--there are few so forward as grandmother.'

'Heaven be thanked!' said his mother fervently. 'When I refused to
cover my tresses she spoke as if I were a brazen Epicurean, but I had
rather have died than carry on so shamelessly with a man to whom I was
not betrothed.'

'Perhaps they _are_ betrothed.'

'_We_ betrothed to Yossel! May his name be blotted out!'

'Why, what is wrong with Yossel? Moses Mendelssohn himself had a
hump.'

'Who speaks of humps? Have you forgotten we are of Rabbinic family?'

Her son had quite forgotten it, as he had forgotten so much of this
naive life to which he was paying a holiday visit.

'Ah yes,' he murmured. 'But Yossel is pious--surely?' A vision of the
psalm-droners and prayer-shriekers in the little synagogue, among whom
the hunchback had been conspicuous, surged up vividly.

'He may shake himself from dawn-service to night-service, he will
never shake off his father, the innkeeper,' said Frau Schneemann
hotly. 'If I were in your grandmother's place I would be weaving my
shroud, not thinking of young men.'

'But she's thinking of old men, you said.'

'Compared with her he is young--she is eighty-four, he is only
seventy-five.'

'Well, they won't be married long,' he laughed.

Frau Schneemann laid her hand on his mouth.

'Heaven forbid the omen,' she cried. ''Tis bringing a _Bilbul_
(scandal) upon a respectable family.'

'I will go and talk to her,' he said gravely. 'Indeed, I ought to have
gone to see her days ago.'