“My family belonged to the last-mentioned class; but through the high connections it has formed, it had grown quite lax and out of touch with the brethren. But we have, nevertheless, never forgotten our origin; and, though I feared to tell it to you, thinking you had become a thorough Christian and would not like to be reminded of your former state, your Hebrew descent was really one of the causes which gained for you my affections, for we Subotnikis honor and revere those native born in the household of Israel very much, and esteem a marriage alliance with them a high privilege. “Your announcement, therefore, of your intention to be a Jew, instead of displeasing me, has afforded me the keenest joy, a joy I never expected to feel. I shall accept your faith, dear Sergei, not merely because I desire to please you, as my husband, but because my heart already inclines toward it with sincere devotion. I shall share your lot and your future, whatever they may bring of joy or sorrow. And like Ruth of old I shall say: ‘Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Whither thou goest I shall go; and where thou diest I shall die, and there shall I be buried.’” Words cannot describe the tremendous revulsion of feeling which the words of Olga, so unexpected, produced in the breast of our hero, whom we shall henceforth call only by his Hebrew cognomen of Saul Isaac. He was transported from the depth of misery and apprehension to the seventh heaven of joy by this so pleasing solution of a difficulty which he had looked upon as almost insoluble. But Olga was also filled with joy, and the radiant gladness which shone from her beautiful eyes showed that she considered that hour, which meant for her the beginning of exile and, perhaps, of poverty, as the happiest of her life. The husband and wife, now joined by a new and profound sympathy, embraced each other with a fervor of love they had not known before, after which they sat down to write a letter to the parents of Saul Isaac. In this letter Saul Isaac gave expression to the happiness which filled his heart, and Olga wrote a few kindly lines, closing with the words, “Your loving daughter and faithful handmaid of Abraham.”