202 UOSENTHAL
By degrees, however, he called to mind where he was, and collected his wits.
Only then he remembered his fearful dream.
"No," he decided within himself, "I have lived till now without the hundred rubles, and I will continue to live without them. If the Lord of the Universe wishes to help me, he will do so without them too. My soul and my portion of the world-to-come are dearer to me. Only let Moisheh Chalfon come in to pray, I will tell him the whole truth and avert misfortune."
This decision gave him courage, he washed his hands, and sat down again to the Psalms. Every few minutes he glanced at the window, to see if it were not beginning to dawn, and if Eeb Moisheh Chalfon were not coming along to Shool.
The day broke.
With the first sunbeams Berel's fears and terrors began little by little to dissipate and diminish. His resolve to restore the hundred rubles weakened con- siderably.
"If I don't confess," thought Berel, wrestling in spirit with temptation, "I risk my world-to-come ... If I do confess, what will my Chantzeh-Leah say to it? He writes, either the wedding takes place, or the contract is dissolved ! And what shall I do, when his father gets to hear about it? There will be a stain on my character, the marriage contract will be annulled, and I shall be left . . . without my good name and . . . with my ugly old maid . . .
"What is to be done? Help ! What is to be done?"
