She looked at him inquiringly.
"Have you a room to let?" he asked.
“A room? Oh! yes, yes,” she exclaimed, “you saw the sign downstairs. Just fol- law me and I'll chow it tn won”
She led him through a small neat room fronting the street, where from behind a sofa he saw two childish faces stealthily peering at him. The maiden brought her forefinger to her lips with a charming gesture and instantly the two little faces disappeared. She looked at him, and a faint smile hovered on her lips and in her eyes. Rodman felt strangely amused and light-hearted.
"This is the room," she said, as they entered an even smaller room adjoining the first. Almost one-third of the space was occupied by a bed. In one corner stood a small table with a lamp on it, and near it a chair. Over the table hung the picture of a tall stately, looking man, with a long black, majestic beard, leaning over the railing of a bridge and gazing meditatively on the river. In another corner stood a bookcase tightly packed with books.
"Whose books are these?" Rodman inquired very much interested at these tokens of intellectual life.
"Oh! they will all be taken away," replied the girl. "You see, my brother Jake has been using this room as long as nobody came to rent it, but if you take it, my brother will put this bookcase into the front-room."
"So these books are your brothers?" he said as he approached and read some of the titles: "History of the Jews" by Graetz; "Old and New Testament;" "Faust;" "History of the People of Israel" by Ernest Renan, etc.
"Whose picture is that?" he asked, pointing to the framed picture above the table, "your father's?"
"Oh no!" she answered, revealing two rows of beautiful teeth as she smiled. "This is Doctor Herzl."
"Doctor Herzl? Who is he? Your family doctor?"
A ringing peal of laughter was the answer. Then, as if remembering that it was not proper to laugh, she stopped suddenly, and a deep flush overspread her features. Rodman, as he looked at her, felt a pleasant tingling sensation and also blushed faintly.
“No, no,” she said, moving her head back and forth archly and slowly, “not the family doctor either. I beg your pardon for laughing, but, you see, it was so funny to hear you ask such 8 question,”——she was again on the point of breaking into laughter. “Doctor Herzl was a great man, —but, I can’t tell you very much about him. My brother will be able to tell you more '?
"Your brother must be a learned man."
"Oh yes!" she held up her hands in emphasis. "He'll be a great man too, perhaps."
A loud cry suddenly came from the next room. She flew out and Rodman saw her lift up from the floor one of the children, a little boy about three years old, who had fallen, and was bawling with all his might. She flung him up in her arms once, and again, then brought her forhead to the child’s and rubbed against it saying, “du, du, du;” then she held the child at arm’s length, opened her eyes wide at it and pouted her lips. The child burst into a ripple of laughter in the midst of its tears. Rodman was so charmed and delighted that he laughed too. The young woman then set the child down, brought her forefinger to her lips as she had done previously and returned to him.
"Well, do you like the room?" she asked.
"Oh yes, I'll take it."
"Then you must leave a deposit until you bring your trunk."
“A deposit? But I have no trunk, this is all I have,” he said pointing to the valise.
"Oh! in that case, you must pay yours first month's rent," she said; and he knew she understood the humor of the situation by the smile hovering about her lips and eyes.
Rodman paid the first month's rent and, as he did so, he said.
"Pardon me, Miss Felsberg, are you the mistress of the house?"
“Yes” she answered “you see, our mother is dead, she died three years ago,—in child-birth.” Rer voice was very low and smooth and a deep sadness flitted across her face.
Rodman left the valise in his room and took his departure.
(Continued on Page 147)