512 ASCH
speaking into the air, and when really obliged to exchange a word with her, he did so with his eyes fixed on the ground, too shy to look her in the face. And now he said he wanted to talk to her, and in such a gentle voice, and they two alone together in their room !
"What do you want to say to me ?" she asked softly.
"Channehle," he began, "please, don't make a fool of me, and don't make a fool of yourself in people's eyes. Has not God decreed that we should belong together? You are my wife and I am your husband, and is it proper, and what does it look like, a married woman wearing her own hair ?"
Sleep still half dimmed her eyes, and had altogether clouded her thought and will. She felt helpless, and her head fell lightly towards his breast.
"Child," he went on still more gently, "I know you are not so depraved as they say. I know you are a pious Jewish daughter, and His blessed Name will help us, and we shall have pious Jewish children. Put away this nonsense ! Why should the whole world be talking about you? Are we not man and wife? Is not your shame mine?"
It seemed to her as though someone, at once very far away and very near, had come and was talking to her. Nobody had ever yet spoken to her so gently and con- fidingly. And he was her husband, with whom she would live so long, so long, and there would be children, and she would look after the house !
She leant her head lightly against him.
"I know you are very sorry to lose your hair, the orna- ment of your girlhood, I saw you with it when I was a
