, looking
compassionately into my face.

"I will put it briefly. You must know, Yuedel, that I have been in
business here for quite a long time. I worked faithfully, and my chief
was pleased with me. I was esteemed and looked up to, and it never
occurred to me that things would change; but bad men could not bear to
see me doing so well, and they worked hard against me, till one day the
business was taken over by my employer's son; and my enemies profited by
the opportunity, to cover me with calumnies from head to foot, spreading
reports about me which it makes one shudder to hear. This went on till
the chief began to look askance at me. At first I got pin-pricks,
malicious hints, then things got worse and worse, and at last they began
to push me about, and one day they turned me out of the house, and threw
me into a hedge. Presently, when I had reviewed the whole situation, I
saw that they could do what they pleased with me. I had no one to rely
on, my onetime good friends kept aloof from me, I had lost all worth in
their eyes; with some because, as is the way with people, they took no
trouble to inquire into the reason of my downfall, but, hearing all that
was said against me, concluded that I was in the wrong; others, again,
because they wished to be agreeable to my enemies; the rest, for reasons
without number. In short, reflecting on all this, I saw the game was
lost, and there was no saying what might not happen to me! Hitherto I
had borne my troubles patiently, with the courage that is natural to me;
but now I feel my courage giving way, and I am in fear lest I should
fall in my own eyes, in my own estimation, and get to believe that I am
worth nothing. And all this because I must needs resort to _them_, and
take all the insults they choose to fling at me, and every outcast has
me at his mercy. That is why I want to collect my remaining strength,
and buy a parcel of land in Palestine, and, God helping, I will become a
bit of a householder--do you understand?"

"Why must it be just in Palestine?"

"Because I may not, and I cannot, buy in anywhere else. I have tried to
find a place elsewhere, but they were afraid I was going to get the
upper hand, so down they came, and made a wreck of it. Over there I
shall be proprietor myself--that is firstly, and secondly, a great many
relations of mine are buried there, in the country where they lived and
died. And although you count me as 'one of them,' I tell you I think a