This answer did not greatly surprise me. I had already come across not a few people, Jews among them, who had called solely for the purpose of 'having a little chat' with a man recently arrived from their country. Those who came were interested in the most varied topics imaginable; there were the inquisitive gossipers pure and simple, there were the people who only enquired after their relations, and there were the politicians, including those whose heads had been turned. Among those who came, however, politics always played a specially important part. So it did not surprise me, I repeat, to hear the wish expressed by a fresh stranger, and although I should have been glad to rid my cottage as quickly as possible of the unpleasant odour of the ox-hide coat,--badly tanned, as usual--I begged him in a friendly way to take it off and sit down. The Jew was evidently pleased. He took a seat beside me at once and I could now observe him closely. All the usual features of the Jewish race were united in the face beside me: the large, slightly crooked nose and penetrating hawk's eyes, the pointed beard of the colour of a well-ripened pumpkin, the low forehead, surrounded by thick hair; all these my guest possessed. And yet, strange to say, the haggard face expressed a certain frank sincerity, and did not make a disagreeable impression on me. 'Tell me where you come from, what your name is, what you are doing here, and why you wish to see me?' 'Please, Sir, I am Srul, from Lubartów. Perhaps you know it,--just a stone's throw from Lublin?--Well, at home everyone thinks it a long way from there, and formerly I thought so too. But now,' he added with emphasis, 'we know that Lubartów is quite close to Lublin, a mere stone's throw.' 'And have you been here long?' 'Very long; three good years.' 'That is not so very long; there are people who have lived here for over 20 years, and I met an old man from Vilna in the road, who had been here close upon 50 years. Those have really been a long time.' But the Jew snubbed me. 'As to them, I can't say. I only know that I have been here a long time.' 'You must certainly live quite alone, if the time seems so long to you?' 'With my wife and child--my daughter. I had four children when I set out, but, may the Lord preserve us, it was such a long way, we were travelling a whole year. Do you know what such a journey means, Sir?... Three children died in one week--died of travelling, as it were. Three children!... An easy thing to say!... There was nowhere even to bury them, for there was no cemetery of ours there.... I am a Husyt,' he added more quietly. 'You know what that means Sir?... I keep the Law strictly ... and yet God punishes me like this....' He grew silent with emotion. 'My friend,' I tried to say to console him a little,--'no doubt under such circumstances it is difficult to remember that it makes no difference; but all earth is hallowed.' But the Jew jumped as if he had been scalded.