Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 18, 2025
The poor Israelites feared to stir from their homes; they sat in prayer during the entire day and fasted as on the Day of Atonement. Towards night, the door of Rabbi Winenki's house was suddenly thrown open, and Joseph Kierson, haggard and travel-stained, entered. "What are you doing here?" ejaculated both the Rabbi and Kathinka, in a breath. "Has there been a riot in Berditchef?" queried Mendel.
The second letter was from Loris. It, too, was full of passionate yearning, but its flowery phrases created a feeling of intense disgust. The Count, evidently ignorant of Joseph's escape, ended his missive with the assurance that unless Kathinka acceded to his demands, her friend would be sent to Siberia on the morrow. Kathinka threw the paper into the fire.
For several months after, Kathinka saw nothing more of her persecutor, and the disagreeable episode gradually faded from her memory. One bright afternoon the girl sat at her window, reading. Her father was engaged in his duties at the school, and her mother had gone from home to take a bottle of wine to a sick neighbor and would probably remain away until evening.
The Rabbi did not reply, but his heart echoed his daughter's forebodings. Kathinka now rarely went out, and never alone. On her way to the synagogue and upon her little errands of mercy, she was invariably attended by her devoted Joseph. The very danger to which the girl had been exposed served to cement their hearts more closely. For a time, nothing was seen of Loris.
With a shriek she threw herself upon his prostrate body. When her friends attempted to move her after the danger had passed, they found that terror and grief had done their work. Recha had lost her reason. On his entrance into the room, Loris gazed about him, and soon singled out Kathinka, standing among her friends, silently praying.
"He has nothing and has as yet no profession. He is merely a student at the University." "But he has a brilliant intellect," retorted Kathinka, proudly. "I have heard you say a dozen times that he will achieve renown. It is one of your favorite maxims that a man must rise by his own exertions. Joseph is destined to rise." "How long has this understanding existed?" asked Mendel.
One day, however, Joseph and Kathinka had just left the Rabbi's house. "Look," whispered Kathinka, pressing Joseph's arm, "he is following us." Joseph turned rapidly and perceived the form of Loris at some distance behind them. The Count, seeing that he was observed, turned a corner and disappeared.
"Oh, you surely are not going to-night, and in such weather," cried the girl. "Don't leave us yet, Joseph; stay with us. We will conceal you." "Don't make my departure harder than I can bear, Kathinka. I must go for your sake as well as for mine. I tremble even now, lest they should discover me. I will go to Berditchef for the present."
When he found himself unembarrassed by the rioters, he lifted Kathinka in both his arms and ran as fast as his feet would bear him to his father's house, which, having already been attacked, he hoped would escape a second visit. The combat between Loris and Mikail was short.
Lifting the struggling maiden in his arms, he pressed through the crowd, out into the street. There he set down his precious burden and paused to regain his breath. Kathinka looked hastily about her. There were many in the crowd who had known her since her childhood, many whom her father had befriended, but they stood passively by and abstained from offering her either assistance or sympathy.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking