There were no serious objections from the cousins, and my father became engaged to my mother.
This second choice was Hannah Hayye, only daughter of Raphael, called the Russian.

She had had a very different bringing-up from Pinchus, the grandson of Israel Kimanyer.

She had never known a day of want; had never gone barefoot from necessity.

The family had a solid position in Polotzk, her father being the owner of a comfortable home and a good business.
Prosperity is prosaic, so I shall skip briefly over the history of my mother's house.
My grandfather Raphael, early left an orphan, was brought up by an elder brother, in a village at no great distance from Polotzk.

The brother dutifully sent him to heder, and at an early age betrothed him to Deborah, daughter of one Solomon, a dealer in grain and cattle.
Deborah was not yet in her teens at the time of the betrothal, and so foolish was she that she was afraid of her affianced husband.