LOST HIS VOICE 407
"Grime, are you mad ? What are you talking about ?"
"What ails the man to-day I" exclaimed Grune, im- patiently. "You've made a fool of yourself long enough ! Go and wash your hands and come to dinner !"
The cantor felt no appetite, but he reflected that one must eat, if only as a remedy; not to eat would make matters worse, and he washed his hands.
He chanted the grace loud and cantor-like, glancing occasionally at his wife, to see if she noticed anything wrong; but this time she said nothing at all, and he was reassured. "It was my fancy just my fancy !" he said to himself. "All nonsense ! One doesn't lose one's voice so soon as all that !"
Then he remembered that he was already forty years old, and it had happened to the cantor Meyer Lieder, when he was just that age
That was enough to put him into a fright again. He bent his head, and thought deeply. Then he raised it, and called out loud :
"Grune!"
"Hush! What is it? What makes you call out in that strange voice?" asked Grune, crossly, running in.
"Well, well, let me live !" said the cantor. "Why do you say 'in that strange voice'? Whose voice was it? eh ? What is the matter now ?"
There was a sound as of tears as he spoke.
"You're cracked to-day ! As nonsensical Well, what do you want?"
"Beat up one or two eggs for me !" begged the cantor, softly.
