22 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR.
she closed the shutters and betook herself to her prayers. Neither did the rabbi, nor the guest, nor good old Father Klosstock. For the three men now lighted fresh pipes, and gathered about the stove to be free and confidential in their conversation, Anna having retired.
" This new governor," said Ferrari, " is General Petro- novitch, a man of a cruel disposition, who hates our chosen people, and aids and abets their persecution. Nay, dear host, my good friend, be not impatient with me. I know what I say ; know more than I dare to communi- cate to you ; know more than some might say I ought ; more I hope than is good for such as Petronovitch."
" I have never asked thee, Ferrari, whence thou comest, or whither thou goest ; but I trust to thy love and dis- cretion not to compromise this household with anything that can be called political."
" Your trust is well placed ; I am here for the last time. Czarovna will see me no more, nor, indeed, will Russia, after I leave her accursed soil on this last journey. Indeed, but for the love I bear you and your daughter I should have not been here to say farewell ; for I passed a long distance out of the way I was going to bring you the warning which the rabbi Losinski has haply received before me. It is well ; you might otherwise have thought less of what I had to tell you."
" If you are compromised in the eyes of the Govern- ment, Andrea Ferrari, it is hardly kind to have made this your chief house of call in Southern Russia," said the rabbi.
" I have had no reason to believe that I was suspected until I left St. Petersburg this time, intending to go to Paris ; but some sudden knowledge of the change of government here and the departure of a certain man from the capital for Elizabethgrad and Czarovna, forced me, as I said before, out of the love I bear this household, to make my way hither."
