Full of apprehension, Falk has gone to the home of his brother’s friend, to pick up the parcel that Aryeh-Leyb sent him "all the way from Warsaw". To his astonishment, he finds that he has stumbled into a secret evening class, set up by idealistic young people to spread progressive thought among the poor, ignorant yeshiva-bokhers of Brisk! The teacher is a young girl from the local Gymnazia, a seventeen-year-old beauty with sparkling eyes and cherry-red lips. As the other "students" settle in to their lesson, Falk finds himself invited to join in. Powerless to resist, he knows that he is taking a monumental step from which there is no turning back. From Chapter Twenty-One: