THE FIRST SEVEN YEARS
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his heart with anxiety and labor- all these dreams of a better life
were dead.
The room was quiet. Sobel was standing by the window readillg,
and it was curious that when he read he looked young.
"She is only nineteen," Feld sighed brokenly. "This is too young
yet to get married. Don't ask her anything for two years more, till
she is twenty-one, then you can talk to he!'."
Sobel did not answer. Feld rose and left. He went slowly down
the stairs but once outside, though it was freezing cold and the crisp
falling snow whitened the street, he walked with a stronger stride.
But the next morning, when the shoemaker arrived heavy-hearted
to open the store, he saw he needn't have come, for his assistant was
already seated at the last, pounding leather for his love.
