Part 76 (2/2)
Just fancy not being able to join fellows at supper, because you mustn't eat oysters or steak? Might as well go into a monastery at once. All very well in ancient Jerusalem, where everybody was rowing in the same boat. Have you ever tasted pork, Esther?”
”No,” said Esther, with a faint smile.
”I have,” said Leonard. ”I don't say it to boast, but I have had it times without number. I didn't like it the first time--thought it would choke me, you know, but that soon wears off. Now I breakfast off ham and eggs regularly. I go the whole hog, you see. Ha! ha! ha!”
”If I didn't see from your card you're not living at home, that would have apprised me of it,” said Esther.
”Of course, I couldn't live at home. Why the guvnor couldn't bear to let me shave. Ha! ha! ha! Fancy a religion that makes you keep your hair on unless you use a depilatory. I was articled to a swell solicitor. The old man resisted a long time, but he gave in at last, and let me live near the office.”
”Ah, then I presume you came in for some of the two thousand, despite your non-connection with Torah?”
”There isn't much left of it now,” said Leonard, laughing. ”What's two thousand in seven years in London? There were over four hundred guineas swallowed up by the premium, and the fees, and all that.”
”Well, let us hope it'll all come back in costs.”
”Well, between you and me,” said Leonard, seriously, ”I should be surprised if it does. You see, I haven't yet sc.r.a.ped through the Final; they're making the beastly exam. stiffer every year. No, it isn't to that quarter I look to recoup myself for the outlay on my education.”
”No?” said Esther.
”No. Fact is--between you and me--I'm going to be an actor.”
”Oh!” said Esther.
”Yes. I've played several times in private theatricals; you know we Jews have a knack for the stage; you'd be surprised to know how many pros are Jews. There's heaps of money to be made now-a-days on the boards. I'm in with lots of 'em, and ought to know. It's the only profession where you don't want any training, and these law books are as dry as the Mishna the old man used to make me study. Why, they say to-night's 'Hamlet' was in a counting-house four years ago.”
”I wish you success,” said Esther, somewhat dubiously. ”And how is your sister Hannah? Is she married yet?”
”Married! Not she! She's got no money, and you know what our Jewish young men are. Mother wanted her to have the two thousand pounds for a dowry, but fortunately Hannah had the sense to see that it's the man that's got to make his way in the world. Hannah is always certain of her bread and b.u.t.ter, which is a good deal in these hard times. Besides, she's naturally grumpy, and she doesn't go out of her way to make herself agreeable to young men. It's my belief she'll die an old maid.
Well, there's no accounting for tastes.”
”And your father and mother?”
”They're all right, I believe. I shall see them to-morrow night--Pa.s.sover, you know. I haven't missed a single _Seder_ at home,”
he said, with conscious virtue. ”It's an awful bore, you know. I often laugh to think of the chappies' faces if they could see me leaning on a pillow and gravely asking the old man why we eat Pa.s.sover cakes.” He laughed now to think of it. ”But I never miss; they'd cut up rough, I expect, if I did.”
”Well, that's something in your favor,” murmured Esther gravely.
He looked at her sharply; suddenly suspecting that his auditor was not perfectly sympathetic. She smiled a little at the images pa.s.sing through her mind, and Leonard, taking her remark for badinage, allowed his own features to relax to their original amiability.
”You're not married, either, I suppose,” he remarked.
”No,” said Esther. ”I'm like your sister Hannah.”
He shook his head sceptically.
”Ah, I expect you'll be looking very high,” he said.
”Nonsense,” murmured Esther, playing with her bouquet.
<script>