At times, when no one was
around, she even spoke Yiddish to me. Apparently she liked to
remain alone in the house with me and chat with me. You must know,
her position in the village was all but agreeable. She had very few
acquaintances; and she would have been better off without any. When
she happened to have visitors, a mutual suspicion at once became
apparent, in their behavior and their talk. There was much more
flattery, much more sweetness of speech than is common among people.
One could see that each spoke only to hide her innermost thoughts.
Every conversation ended as it began: with gossip about women who
were not zealous enough in matters of church attendance. And when
it came to that, Anna invariably blushed, simply because she was
afraid she might blush. Then, feeling the blood coming to her face,
she would try to hide her confusion, and would chatter away
ceaselessly, to show how punctual she was herself in church matters.
On taking leave, Anna's friends would exchange significant glances,
and Anna would have been either too stupid or else too wise not to
notice the sting of those sly looks.
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