"And to this day," he wound up, "I don't know what is the use of story-books. At any rate, for men. Perhaps you write for women?" * * * * * Meanwhile it began to dawn; my neighbor's long, thin, yellow face became visible--with a pair of black-ringed, tired-looking red eyes. He was apparently anxious to recite his prayers, and began to polish the window-pane, but I interrupted him. "Tell me, my friend, don't take it amiss. Is your wife content _now_?" "How, content?" "She is no longer dull?" "She has a stall with salt and herrings; one child at the breast and two to wash and comb. She has a day's work blowing their noses." Again he rubs the pane, and again I question: "Tell me, friend, what is your wife like?" My neighbor sat up, threw a side-glance at me, looked me down from head to foot, and asked severely: "Then you know my wife? From Warsaw, eh?" "Not in the least," I answered; "I only mean, in case I am ever in Konskivòlye, so that I may recognize her." "So that you may recognize her?" he smiles, reassured. "I'll give you a sign: she has a mole on the left side of her nose." * * * * * The Jew got down from the chaise, giving me a cold and distant farewell as he stood on the step. He evidently still suspected me of knowing his wife and of belonging to her miserable family in Warsaw. I was left alone in the chaise, but it was useless to think of sleep. The cool morning had taken hold of me. My literary overcoat blew out in the wind, and I felt chilly all over. I shrank together in the corner. The sun began to shine outside. It may be that I was riding through beautiful country; the early rays may have kissed hill-tops and green trees, and slid down a glassy river; but I hadn't the courage to open the little window. A Jewish author fears the cold! I began, as the Jew put it, to "think out" a story. But other thoughts came in between. Two different worlds, a man's world and a woman's world--a world with Talmudical treatises on goring oxen, and ditches, and incendiary fires, and the damages to be paid for them, and a world with story-books that are sold by weight! If _he_ reads, _she_ goes to sleep; if _she_ reads, _he_ goes to sleep! As if we were not divided enough, as if we had not already "French noses," "English sticks," "Dutch Georges," "Lithuanian pigs," "Polish beggars," "Palestinian tramps;" as though every part of our body were not lying in a different place and had not a resounding nickname; as though every part, again, had not fallen into smaller ones: Chassidîm, Misnagdîm, "Germans;" as though all this were not, we must needs divide ourselves into men and women--and every single, narrow, damp, and dirty Jewish room must contain these two worlds within itself.