Part 11 (1/2)
Philip nodded vigorously and Mrs. Saphir sat up in her chair.
”Him?” she asked.
”Sure; why not?” Seiden answered.
”But, Mr. Seiden----” Sternsilver cried.
”_Koosh_, Sternsilver,” Seiden said. ”Don't you mind that woman at all.
If Bessie was my own daughter even, I would give my consent.”
”_Aber_, Mr. Seiden----” Sternsilver cried again in anguished tones, but further protest was choked off by Mrs. Saphir, who rose from her seat with surprising alacrity and seized Philip around the neck. For several minutes she kissed him with loud smacking noises, and by the time he had disengaged himself Seiden had brought in Miss Bessie Saphir. As she blus.h.i.+ngly laid her hand in Sternsilver's unresisting clasp Seiden patted them both on the shoulder.
”For a business man, Sternsilver,” he said, ”long engagements is nix; and to show you that I got a heart, Sternsilver, I myself would pay for the wedding, which would be in two weeks at the latest.”
He turned to Mrs. Miriam Saphir.
”I congradulate you,” he said. ”And now get out of here!”
For the next ten days Mr. and Mrs. Seiden and Miss Saphir were so busy with preparations for the wedding that they had no leisure to observe Sternsilver's behaviour. He proved to be no ardent swain; and, although Bessie was withdrawn from the factory on the day following her betrothal, Sternsilver called at her residence only twice during the first week of their engagement.
”I didn't think the feller got so much sense,” Seiden commented when Bessie Saphir complained of Philip's coldness.
”He sees you got your hands full getting ready, so he don't bother you at all.”
As for Seiden, he determined to spare no expense, up to two hundred and fifty dollars, in making the wedding festivites greatly redound to his credit both socially and in a business way.
To that end he had dispatched over a hundred invitations to the wholesale houses from which he purchased goods.
”You see what I am doing for you,” he said to Sternsilver one morning, a week before the wedding day. ”Not only in postage stamps I am spending my money but the printing also costs me a whole lot, too, I bet yer.”
”What is the use spending money for printing when you got a typewriter which she is setting half the time doing nothing, Mr. Seiden?” Philip protested.
”That's what I told Mrs. Seiden,” his employer replied, ”and she goes pretty near crazy. She even wanted me I should got 'em engraved, so _grossartig_ she becomes all of a sudden. Printing is good enough, Sternsilver. Just lookyhere at this now, how elegant it is.”
He handed Philip an invitation which read as follows:
MR. AND MRS. I. SEIDEN AND MRS. MIRIAM SAPHIR
REQUEST THE HONOUR OF
THE INTERCOLONIAL TEXTILE COMPANY'S
PRESENCE AT THE MARRIAGE OF HER DAUGHTER
BESSIE
TO
MR. PHILIP STERNSILVER