is
Jacob?"

Mendel burst into tears, the first he had shed since his enforced
departure from home. In as few words as possible he told his story,
accompanied by the sobs and exclamations of his hearers. In conclusion,
he added:

"Either Jacob wandered away in his delirium and is perhaps dead in some
deserted place, or else the soldiers have recaptured him and have taken
him back to Kharkov."

"Rather he be dead than among the inhuman Cossacks at the barracks,"
returned his uncle. "God in His mercy does all things for the best!"

"The poor boy must be starving," said Miriam, and she set the table with
the best the house afforded, but Mendel could touch nothing.

"It looks tempting, but I cannot eat," he said. "I have no appetite."

The poor fellow stretched himself on a large sofa, where he lay so
quiet, so utterly exhausted, that Hirsch and his wife looked at each
other anxiously and gravely shook their heads.

A casual stranger would not have judged from the unpretentious exterior
of Bensef's house, that its proprietor was in possession of considerable
means, that every room was furnished in taste and even luxury, that
works of oriental art were hidden in its recesses. Persecuted during
generations by the jealous and covetous nations surrounding them, the
Jews learned to conceal their wealth beneath the mask of poverty.
Robbers, in the guise of uniformed soldiery and decorated officers of
the Czar, stalked in broad daylight to relieve the despised Hebrew of
his superfluous wealth, and thus it happened that the poorest hut was
often the depository of gold and silver, of artistic utensils, which
were worthy of the table of the Czar himself. Nor was this fact entirely
unknown to the surrounding Christians. Not unfrequently were
persecutions the outcome of the absurd idea that every Jewish hovel was
the abode of riches, and that every hut where misery held court, where
starving children cried for bread, was a mine of untold wealth. The
condition of the race has changed in some of the more civilized
countries, but in Russia these barbarous notions still prevail.

Hirsch Bensef, by untiring energy and perseverance as a dealer in curios
and works of art, had become one of the wealthiest and most influential
men in the community. He was _parnas_ of the great congregation of Kief,
and was respected, not only by his co-religionists, but also by the
nobles with whom he transacted the greater portion of his business.