ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
603
before a year passed. Lipski did not leave a will, and a gang of
would-be heirs emerged. They came, God knows from where , and
they took everything away from Aliza. On the other hand there was
not much to take. Whoever could, grabbed a piece . This is how peo–
ple are. They imagine that they themselves will live forever . When
Chwalski heard what was going on , he took a gun and came running
ready to kill all of them. But Aliza said to him, 'You don't interfere.'
And her word was holy to him. There are such people who will si–
lently allow others to rob them. Perhaps it was gentleness or perhaps
foolishness. It was known that she came from very high nobility and
with some of them money has no meaning. Their main passion is
their honor. One way or another she remained with nothing. All
they left her was the empty walls . Lipski had had a court-Jew by the
name ofYankel. But how can ajew fight off Gentiles? He came to
her and said, 'Your Excellency, they take away everything from
you.' And she answered , 'They cannot take more than I possess.' She
had suffered all these years with Count Lipski but no one ever heard
her complain . Some people are wolves, others are sheep. But
ultimately no one takes anything with them. They brought her a
document and she signed it without blinking an eye .
"Not a month had passed and a marshal of the court came with
some officials and they told Aliza to move out. Neither the house nor
the furniture belonged to her anymore . Again Chwalski came run–
ning ready to defend her: a little man and yet hot-blooded .
If
Aliza
would have asked him to jump into a fire for her sake he wouldn't
have hesitated for a moment. But Aliza told him to leave matters
alone. He wanted to bring her to his estate but she refused to go with
him as long as they were not married . To make it short, she found
some wealthy peasant- a village elder. He had a little hut beside his
house where he kept flax and other objects and he cleared them away
for her to live in . Her husband's relatives had left her a single bed
and her books . That's all she needed. She had managed to hide some
of her personal jewelry which Yankel had later sold for her and on
this she supported herself for the year. On Sabbath afternoon the
tailors' and shoemakers' apprentices and the seamstresses took a
walk to the village to peer into her window and see what the haughty
Countess was doing. She didn't even leave herself a maid. On Sun–
day the elder took her in his britska to church. Chwalski again and
again tried to persuade her to move to his estate but she did not let
herself be persuaded. A pure soul, you should forgive the com–
parison, almost a rebbitzin.
"A year passed and she became a Squiress again . All the nobil-
