The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer

myself; I became ill--before the examinations were given."
    She sat down on the edge of the bed. In the setting sun's rays her hair took on the color of molten gold. Her small face lay in shadow. She looked toward the window, at a large expanse of sky, a row of rooftops, and the tall chimney of a factory.
    Snowflakes pattered against the window pane. Asa Heshel sat on a chair near the bookshelves, his face half-turned toward Hadassah. "If I had a room like this," he was thinking, "and if I could only stretch out on a bed like that . . ." He took a book from the shelf, opened it, and put it on his lap.
    "Why did you leave your home?" Hadassah asked.
    "Just so. For no real reason. It was impossible for me to stay."
    "And your mother let you go?"
    "Not at the beginning. But then later she could see for herself that--" his voice trailed off.
    "Is it true that you're a philosopher?"
    -53-"Oh, no. I've read a few books, that's all. What I know amounts to nothing."
    "Do you believe in God?"
    "Yes, but not in a God who demands prayer."
    "Then what God do you believe in?"
    "The whole universe is part of the Deity. We ourselves are part of God."
    "That means that if you have a toothache, it's God's tooth that's aching."
    "Well, I suppose it's something like that."
    "I really don't know what to tutor you in," Hadassah said after a slight pause. "Maybe Polish. I don't care for Russian."
    "Polish will be all right."
    "Do you understand the language?" She asked the question in Polish.
    "Oh, yes, I understand it well enough."
    The moment she went over to Polish the entire tone of the conversation seemed to change. Before that her voice had had a youthful, almost childish quality, the sentences sometimes drawn out, sometimes tumbling. Now the Polish accents came from her lips precisely and definitely, with the soft consonantal sounds carefully formed. Asa Heshel's Polish came slowly and stumblingly; he had to stop to think of the proper word forms and tense endings. Hadassah crossed her knees and listened carefully to him. He spoke with grammatical correctness, not substituting, as her father did, the dative for the accusative. It was his sentence structure that was unusual. In his mouth the language took on a languid sort of intimacy, as though the Polish had suddenly, by some sort of miracle, become the homey Yiddish.
    "How do you plan to establish yourself in Warsaw?"
    "I don't know yet."
    "My Uncle Abram can be of great help to you. He knows everyone. He's a very interesting person."
    "Oh, yes, I noticed that."
    "He's a bit wild, but I love him. We all love him--Papa, Mamma, everyone. If a day passes without him coming here, we miss him. I call him 'the Flying Dutchman'; that's the name of an opera.
    "Yes, I know."
    "He has a daughter--my cousin, that is--her name is Stepha.
    -54-She's the one who'd really be able to teach you. When she finished school she got a gold medal. She's just like her father--runs around, always jolly. We're altogether different."
    "Forgive me, Miss Hadassah, but you talk so beautifully--like a poet."
    Asa Heshel's own words surprised him. They escaped his lips as though of their own volition. The unfamiliar and formal language and the dimness of the room seemed to have conspired to banish his timidity.
    Or maybe it was the glass of brandy he had had.
    "A poet? You're making fun of me."
    "Oh, no, I assure you."
    "I don't write poetry--but I love to read it."
    "I mean in your soul."
    "Ah, now you're being just like Uncle Abram. He scatters compliments around on all sides."
    "Oh, no, I'm in earnest."
    "Well, anyway, it's agreed that I'll give you lessons in Polish. How many times a week?"
    "Why, I leave that to you. Just as you like."
    "Then let's say Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Between four and five."
    "I'm very thankful."
    "And be sure to come on time."
    "Oh, yes, on the dot."
    "Now we'd better go back into the living-room or Uncle Abram will be making all sorts of remarks."
    They went back through the