The Yoke of the Thorah

# The Yoke of the Thorah by Sidney Luska (Henry Harland)

This 1896 novel, reprinted in 1900 by Street & Smith, opens in November 1882 with Elias Bacharach, a young painter struggling with melancholy in his New York studio. Seeking relief, he visits Matthew Redwood, a costume-maker in Union Square, intending to consult about Provençal peasant costumes for a painting based on Mistral's Mireio. There he glimpses a golden-haired girl, approximately seventeen, of striking beauty and unsophisticated bearing—possibly an actress—conversing with Redwood. Captivated, Elias questions whether she frequents the theater. Unable to suppress his interest, he accepts Redwood's invitation to visit his home on West Sixty-third Street that evening, planning to ask about the girl's identity. The excerpt breaks as Elias arrives at Redwood's conventional Victorian parlor, with its period furnishings and eclectic literature collection.