One of the two rooms was often full of
men, some of them with heavy beards, who would sit there, each
awaiting his turn, as patients do in the reception-room of a
physician, and whiling their time away by chaffing the little girl
upon her mother's occupation and her own future. Some of the
questions and jokes they would address to her were of the most
revolting nature, whereupon she would reply, "Oh, go to hell!" or
stick out her tongue resentfully
One day I asked Bertha why she was giving her child this sort of
bringing up
"I once tried to keep her in another place, with a respectable
family," she replied, ruefully. "But she would not stay there.
Besides, I missed her so much I could not stand it."
Another fallen woman who was frank with me proved to be a
native of Antomir.
When she heard that I was from the same place she flushed with
excitement
"Go away!" she shouted. "You're fooling me."
We talked of the streets, lanes, and yards of our birthplace, she
hailing every name I uttered with outbursts of wistful enthusiasm
I wondered whether she knew of my mother's sensational death,
but I never disclosed my identity to her, though she, on her part,
told me with impetuous frankness the whole story of her life
"You are a Talmudist, aren't you?" she asked
"How do you know?"
"How do I know! As if it could not be seen by your face.
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