stopped before Jankiel Kamionker's
inn, and his eyes opened wider, for a sudden idea took hold of his
mind.

"Ber!" he exclaimed, "do you see him? That is the lord of Kamionka."

The sun was declining towards the west when, in the porch of Saul's
house, stood a group of men gaily conversing among themselves. They
were Saul's visitors who, after having feasted at his hospitable
board, were now saying good-bye, and pressing the old man's hand,
thanking him for his kind reception; then, by twos and threes, they
mounted the waiting carts, their faces still turned towards their
venerable host, who stood in the porch.

In the sitting-room the women, with the help of the servants, were
busy clearing the table, and putting away the dinner service.

The fair was also drawing to an end; the carts grew fewer by degrees,
so did the people upon the square. All the noise and liveliness
concentrated itself now in the several inns where the people were
drinking and dancing. Jankiel Kamionker's inn was by far the most
frequented and noisiest, No wonder.

The crafty dealer rented several distilleries and some seventy inns
about the country, and ruled over a small army of subtenants and
inn-keepers, of the Samson kind, who bought meat once a week, and
starved on other days. They depended entirely on Kamionker, who, if
he did not treat them generously they, on their side, were not
generous towards the peasants, whom they plied with drink. Through
his subordinates, Kamionker held thousands of peasants' families
under his thumb. Therefore they all came to his inn. He did not
himself look after his humble customers, but left them to his wife
and his two strong and ugly daughters, who carried bottles and
glasses round the tables, together with salted herrings, and
different kinds of bread. Nobody could have guessed, seeing the faded
woman, shabbily dressed, moving in that stifling atmosphere of
alcohol and human breath, that she was the wife of one of the
wealthiest men in the country.

Neither did the man in his musty garments who stood humbly at the
door of the guest's room, look like a great capitalist and financier.

He stood near the threshold, and his guest, the lord of Kamionka,
reclined in an easy-chair smoking a cigar. The young gentleman was
tall and handsome; his dark hair fell upon a white forehead, though
the other part of his face was slightly browned by the sun. He had a
good-natured and thoughtful face.

The gay pla