Part 34 (1/2)

”Hus.h.!.+ what are you saying!” said Sugarman, ”Gideon is a rich man, and then he is a director.”

”It seems a good lot of directors,” said Meckisch.

”Good to look at. But who can tell?” said Sugarman, shaking his head.

”The Queen of Sheba probably brought sapphires to Solomon, but she was not a virtuous woman.”

”Ah, Solomon!” sighed Mrs. Shmendrik, p.r.i.c.king up her ears and interrupting this talk of stocks and stones, ”If he'd had a thousand daughters instead of a thousand wives, even his treasury couldn't have held out. I had only two girls, praised be He, and yet it nearly ruined me to buy them husbands. A dirty _Greener_ comes over, without a s.h.i.+rt to his skin, and nothing else but he must have two hundred pounds in the hand. And then you've got to stick to his back to see that he doesn't take his breeches in his hand and off to America. In Poland he would have been glad to get a maiden, and would have said thank you.”

”Well, but what about your own son?” said Sugarman; ”Why haven't you asked me to find Shoss.h.i.+ a wife? It's a sin against the maidens of Israel. He must be long past the Talmudical age.”

”He is twenty-four,” replied Peleg Shmendrik.

”Tu, tu, tu, tu, tu!” said Sugarman, clacking his tongue in horror, ”have you perhaps an objection to his marrying?”

”Save us and grant us peace!” said the father in deprecatory horror.

”Only Shoss.h.i.+ is so shy. You are aware, too, he is not handsome. Heaven alone knows whom he takes after.”

”Peleg, I blush for you,” said Mrs. Shmendrik. ”What is the matter with the boy? Is he deaf, dumb, blind, unprovided with legs? If Shoss.h.i.+ is backward with the women, it is because he 'learns' so hard when he's not at work. He earns a good living by his cabinet-making and it is quite time he set up a Jewish household for himself. How much will you want for finding him a _Calloh_?”

”Hus.h.!.+” said Sugarman sternly, ”do you forget it is the Sabbath? Be a.s.sured I shall not charge more than last time, unless the bride has an extra good dowry.”

On Sat.u.r.day night immediately after _Havdalah_, Sugarman went to Mr.

Belcovitch, who was just about to resume work, and informed him he had the very _Chosan_ for Becky. ”I know,” he said, ”Becky has a lot of young men after her, but what are they but a pack of bare-backs? How much will you give for a solid man?”

After much haggling Belcovitch consented to give twenty pounds immediately before the marriage ceremony and another twenty at the end of twelve months.

”But no pretending you haven't got it about you, when we're at the _Shool_, no asking us to wait till we get home,” said Sugarman, ”or else I withdraw my man, even from under the _Chuppah_ itself. When shall I bring him for your inspection?”

”Oh, to-morrow afternoon, Sunday, when Becky will be out in the park with her young men. It's best I shall see him first!”

Sugarman now regarded Shoss.h.i.+ as a married man! He rubbed his hands and went to see him. He found him in a little shed in the back yard where he did extra work at home. Shoss.h.i.+ was busy completing little wooden articles--stools and wooden spoons and moneyboxes for sale in Petticoat Lane next day. He supplemented his wages that way.

”Good evening, Shoss.h.i.+,” said Sugarman.

”Good evening,” murmured Shoss.h.i.+, sawing away.

Shoss.h.i.+ was a gawky young man with a blotched sandy face ever ready to blush deeper with the suspicion that conversations going on at a distance were all about him. His eyes were s.h.i.+fty and catlike; one shoulder overbalanced the other, and when he walked, he swayed loosely to and fro. Sugarman was rarely remiss in the offices of piety and he was nigh murmuring the prayer at the sight of monstrosities. ”Blessed art Thou who variest the creatures.” But resisting the temptation he said aloud, ”I have something to tell you.”

Shoss.h.i.+ looked up suspiciously.

”Don't bother: I am busy,” he said, and applied his plane to the leg of a stool.

”But this is more important than stools. How would you like to get married?”

Shoss.h.i.+'s face became like a peony.

”Don't make laughter,” he said.

”But I mean it. You are twenty-four years old and ought to have a wife and four children by this time.”

”But I don't want a wife and four children,” said Shoss.h.i.+.