Malamud describes the moment in lyr

Malamud describes the moment in lyrical language: "Her face deeply moved him. Why, he could at first not say. It gave him the impression of youth - spring flowers, yet age - a sense of having been used to the bone, wasted; this came from the eyes, which were hauntingly familiar, yet absolutely strange ... she leaped forth to his heart - had *lived,* or wanted to ... it could be seen in the depths of those reluctant eyes, and from the way the light enclosed and shone from her, and within her, opening realms of possibility: this was her own. Her he desired."

And yet, "he received an impression, somehow, of evil. He shuddered, saying softly, it is thus with us all .... Only such a one could understand him and help him seek whatever he was seeking."

The mysterious woman in the photograph turns out to be the matchmaker's daughter, Stella. At the end, over the matchmaker's objections, Leo and the woman meet. Malamud writes: "She was ... waiting under a street lamp. He appeared, carrying a small bouquet of violets and rosebuds. Stella stood by the lamp post, smoking. She wore white with red shoes, which fitted his expectations, although in a troubled moment he had imagined the dress red, and only the shoes white ... her eyes ... were filled with desperate innocence. He pictured, in her, his own redemption."

The stories ends with a famously ambiguous paragraph: "Around the corner, Salzman, leaning against a wall, chanted prayers for the dead."

Many interpretations are possible for that last paragraph. Earlier, Salzman had told Leo, "She is not for you. She is a wild one - wild, without shame. This is not a bride for a rabbi.... Like an animal. Like a dog. For her to be poor was a sin. That is why to me she is dead now."

Stella, perhaps, had been a prostitute, but that isn't totally clear. One reason that the story's ending is so open to different interpretations is because we don't know exactly what,if anything, Stella had done that was so terrible. Another reason the ending is ambiguous is that we don't know who Salzman is praying for when he chants the prayers for the dead. Is it for his daughter? Does he see her as dead to him now because of what she has done? Or is he praying for Leo, for falling into Stella's clutches? Or could Salzman even be praying for himself? Is it he who is dead to himself?







Another fascinating question raised by the story is why does Leo find "his own redemption" in Stella? Earlier, on his first unsuccessful blind date with a woman named Lily, Leo had become enraged when Lily asked him "When did you become enamored of God?"