e other hand on a staff which
might be the one to rest the firearm on. He had a flat felt hat on, with
wide shaggy margins, ornamented with a yellow cord in contrast with its
inky dye, and a dingy, often mended old cavalry-soldier's russet cloak,
covering him from a long, full grey beard to the feet, encased in
patched shoes. The aspect of a Jew peddler in the pictures of the Dutch
school, who had armed himself to defend his pack of thread and needles
on the highway.

But, as before, nearness dispelled the romantic conceit: the supposed
gun resolved itself into a Turko-phone, or Oriental flute, while, on the
other hand, the bright eye and well-shaped features, with the venerable
impression suggested by the beard, lifted the wearer into a high place
for reverence. Just as the girl was unrivaled for beauty, this man, a
near relative, perhaps her father, would have few equals in the councils
of his tribe.

While not old, spite of the grey in his beard, illness had enfeebled
him, for he needed the walking-staff. The brisk pace of his daughter had
left him far behind and it cost him an effort to make up for the delay.
But in parental love he found the force, and quite nimbly he passed the
student without observing him in his haste to join his daughter.

At the sight of him coming, she had not waited for his arm, but retaken
her course. She was half way over the bridge when he began to ascend the
gentle slope, and when he was arduously following with the summit well
before him, the officer emerged abruptly from his covert. He must have
been calculating on this moment and this separation to which Baboushka
had no doubt contributed. She now loomed into view. Repulsed by the Jew
in his detestation of beggars--for while the Christian accepts poverty
as a misfortune to which resignation is one remedy, he regards it as an
affliction to be violently removed--she hesitated to continue her
annoyance. The bridge was so narrow that he had no difficulty, thanks to
the length of his arms, in placing a hand on each rail, so that, as he
bent his broad, smiling face forward between them, he effectively barred
the way. With a tone which he intended to be winning and tender, but
which nature had not allowed him to modulate very sweetly, he said:

"Divine songstress of Freyer Brothers' Brewery Harmonista Cellars!" She
stopped quickly and faced half round, so as to be in a better position
for retreat if he made an advance toward her. "In the