long, persistent wooing was often cited as striking testimony to his
indomitable will. Gudule was famous throughout the Ghetto as "the girl
with the wonderful eyes," eyes--so the saying ran--into which no man
could look and think of evil. During the earlier years of their married
life those unfathomable brown eyes exercised on Ascher the full power
of their fascination. A time came, however, when he alleged that those
very eyes had been the cause of all his ruin.

Gudule's birthplace was far removed from the Ghetto, where Ascher had
first seen the light. Her father was a wealthy farmer in a secluded
village in Lower Bohemia. But distant though it was from the nearest
town of any importance, the solitary grange became the centre of
attraction to all the young swains far and near. But there was none who
found favor in Gudule's eyes save "Wild Ascher," in spite of many a
friendly warning to beware of him. One day, just before the betrothal
of the young people, an anonymous letter was delivered at the grange.
The writer, who called himself an old friend, entreated the farmer to
prevent his dear child from becoming the wife of one who was suspected
of being a gambler. The farmer was of an easy-going, indulgent nature,
shunning care and anxiety as a very plague. Accordingly, no sooner had
he read the anonymous missive than he handed it to his daughter, as
though its contents were no concern of his.

When Gudule had read the letter to the end, she merely remarked:
"Father, this concerns me, and nobody else."

And so the matter dropped.

Not until the wedding-day, half an hour before the ceremony, when the
marriage canopy had already been erected in the courtyard, did the