A JEWISH CHILD 511
called him up to the Reading of the Law, the Chassidim pursued him, and to-day Chayyim Moisheh had blamed him in the presence of the whole congregation, and had shamed him, because she, his wife, went about in her own hair. "You're no better than a clay image," Reb Chayyim Moisheh had told him. "What do you mean by a woman's saying she won't ? It is written : 'And he shall rule over thee.' "
And he had come home intending to go to her and say : "Woman, it is a precept in the Torah ! If you persist in wearing your own hair, I may divorce you without returning the dowry," after which he would pack up his things and go home. But when he saw his little wife asleep in bed, and her pale face peeping out of the glory of her hair, he felt a great pity for her. He went up to the bed, and stood a long while looking at her, after which he called softly:
"Channehle . . . Channehle . . . Channehle ..."
She opened her eyes with a frightened start, and looked round in sleepy wonder:
"Nosson, did you call? What do you want?
"Nothing, your cap has slipped off," he said, lifting up the white nightcap, which had fallen from her head.
She flung it on again, and wanted to turn towards the wall.
"Channehle, Channehle, I want to talk to you."
The words went to her heart. The whole time since their marriage he had, so to say, not spoken to her. During the day she saw nothing of him, for he spent it in the house-of-study or in the Stiibel. When he came home to dinner, he sat down to the table in silence. When he wanted anything, he asked for it
