n with
Saul there were assembled in Witebski's parlour five persons--two men
and three women. And it was not a common parlour! it was ornamented
with a sofa, having springs and upholstered in green rep--the only
sofa of its kind in Szybow--several armchairs to match it, and a
piano. It is true, it was not very new. In several places the varnish
had been rubbed off, and the narrowness of the keys and the
yellowness of the ivory betrayed its great antiquity. In fact, it was
the only piano in the whole of Szybow. When a year ago it had been
bought for the exclusive use of Mera, it caused a small revolution in
the town and Pani Hannah's heart filled with joy and great pride.
This parlour was also not lacking in lace curtains and several
jardinieres in which grew several--to tell the truth--very ugly and
badly kept cacti and geraniums. But it happened that a year ago one
of the cacti had by some accident bloomed. Pani Hannah immediately
placed it in the window looking on the street, and all the children
in town came to her house to look at the red flower.

So, then, on the green sofa with springs, sat Pani Hannah and her
sister, the wife of a merchant in Wilno, in whose house Mera had
boarded during her three years of study at the college. She escorted
her niece home personally, bringing with her, in the meanwhile, her
son Leopold. Her figure was imposingly like Pani Hannah's. She wore a
velvet mantilla, much gold jewellery and her own hair. On either side
of the table which stood opposite the sofa, sat the host and Pani
Hannah's young nephew Leopold. Mera, a pretty girl, with yellow hair
and pale complexion, was hovering about the piano, wishing to touch
the keys as soon as possible, and fill the whole house with merry
music, but not daring to because it was Sabbath.

Mera knew that it was forbidden to play any musical instrument on
Sabbath, but she would not have minded such prohibition had it not
been for the glance of her father which followed her and warned her
against committing a sin. Neither was it allowed to smoke on the
Sabbath, but Leopold, a good-looking, slender youth of about twenty
years, sat in the armchair in a very careless position smoking a
cigarette, from which thin threads of smoke arose and floated through
the open window; Eli rose and shut the window. On Leopold's lips a
disdainful smile appeared, Mera shrugged her shoulders, and Pani
Hannah blushed with shame.

On a table, on a silver tray, were