To put upon her an indignity is an unpardonable offense.
After the feasting and dancing, which lasted a whole week, the wedding presents were locked up, the bride, with her hair discreetly covered, returned to her father's store, and the groom, with his new praying-shawl, repaired to the synagogue.

This was all according to the marriage bargain, which implied that my father was to study and pray and fill the house with the spirit of piety, in return for board and lodging and the devotion of his wife and her entire family.
All the parties concerned had entered into this bargain in good faith, so far as they knew their own minds.

But the eighteen-year-old bridegroom, before many months had passed, began to realize that he felt no such hunger for the word of the Law as he was supposed to feel.

He felt, rather, a hunger for life that all his studying did not satisfy.

He was not trained enough to analyze his own thoughts to any purpose; he was not experienced enough to understand where his thoughts were leading him.