28
PARTISAN REVIEW
eyes on him and when he came home in the evening, he buried him–
self in books and journals about people with the little worms in their
blood. 'He knows,' she said, 'everything. But how to satisfy a wife,
that he didn't study.'
"When a woman speaks like that to a stranger, the first move is
already made. After she left I asked Reitzele: 'Where did you meet
this fancy lady?' And she said, 'At Lours's Cafe.' That's Reitzele for
you. She could dress up like a countess and go to the theater, the
opera, to Lazienki Gardens. She leaves Smocza Street, and right
away she's a lady. The whole thing seemed crazy to me. I wanted
Reitzele, not the skin doctor's wife. But Reitzele had already made
up her mind. The first time it happened I couldn't believe it myself."
The jail door opened and the guard came in to retrieve the
lamp.
"By law, you should be asleep already," he said, "but I'll let it
pass ."
"We got a little involved in a conversation," Itche the Blind
said. "We'll make up the sleep tomorrow."
"I know nothing. Just doing my duty," the guard said.
• • •
"What's the sense in fixing up your lover with another
woman?" Berele Zwaniak asked.
The cell had become dark. Only the ends of the lit cigarettes
cast a glow on everyone's face. Itche the Blind paused a while. "It
doesn't have to make sense," he said. "Why did Leah in the Bible
present Jacob with her maid? Why are we sitting here behind bars?
I could easily have had a store on Miodowa Street just like the
schliemels who came here from the provinces and made fortunes.
But you begin something and you can't get out of it. Once there
was a professor and he spent so much time pondering lofty thoughts
until he came to the conclusion that all men are crazy. Maybe it's
really so?"
"I'll bet you that Reitzele got a fee from the skin doctor's wife,"
Berele Zwaniak said.
Itche the Blind didn't answer right away.
"I don't know," he finally said. "I didn't know then and I cer–
tainly don't know now.
If
she did, she was welcome to it. Why did
such a cute little woman have to pay for it? Some men would have
paid
her.
On the other hand, if a lady like her were to start up with
