ABSTRACT
Ina Russian town, called Ayolon, there lived a well-to-do Jewish shopkeeper, who had an only daughter named Bath Shua. She was young and good-looking, and possessed some accomplishments ; and there was every probability that, had she married a more or less educated man, her married life would have been a happy one. But, unfortunately for her, her father, being both a bigot and an ignoramus, gave her away, without first consulting her, to Hillel, a poor and ill-bred student of Jewish theology. He was supposed to be well-versed in Rabbinic lore, but otherwise he had nothing attractive about him. His face was shrivelled, his eyes were round like a calf s, and his locks resembled the tails of apes, so that it was but natural that Bath Shua, after her marriage, was far from happy.
