WOMEN 457
her ! Sheine ! It's getting-up time and past ! Are you deaf or half-witted ? What' s come to you this morning ?' I was so afraid I should laugh. I gave a jump and called out, woe is me, why ever didn't you wake me sooner? Bandit! It's already eight o'clock!"
Her hearers go off into contented laughter, which grows clearer, softer, more contented still. Each one tells her tale of how she was wakened by her husband, and one tells this joke: Once, when her husband had called to rouse her (he also usually woke her after market), she answered that on that morning she did not intend to get up for market, that he might go for once instead. This apparently pleases them still better, for their laughter renews itself, more spon- taneous and hearty even than before. Each makes a witty remark, each feels herself in merry mood, and all is cheerfulness.
They would wax a little more serious only when they came to talk of their daughters. A woman would begin by trying to recall her daughter's age, and beg a second one to help her remember when the girl was born, so that she might not make a mistake in the calculation. And when it came to one that had a daughter of sixteen, the mother fell into a brown study; she felt herself in a very, very critical posi- tion, because when a girl comes to that age, one ought soon to marry her. And there is really nothing to prevent it: money enough will be forthcoming, only let the right kind of suitor present himself, one, that is, who shall insist on a well-dowered bride, because otherwise what sort of a suitor do you call that? She
