Part 39 (1/2)
”Suppose she don't,” Lesengeld commented. ”Ain't it better she should spoil some _Tzimmus_ which all it's got into it is carrots, potatoes, and a little chuck? If it would be that she makes a failure _mit Ganse oder_ chickens which it really costs money, understand me, then you got a right to kick.”
”That's what I says,” Belz replied, ”_aber_ that Miss Duckman takes everything so particular. She kicks about it all the way up in the subway, which the next time I get one of my wife's relations in a Home, either it would be so far away she couldn't come to see us at all, or it would be so nearby that I don't got to lose a night's rest seeing her home. I didn't get to bed till pretty near two o'clock.”
He stifled a yawn as he sat down at his desk.
”All the same, Lesengeld,” he added, ”they certainly got a nice place up there for old women. There's lots of respectable business men pays ten dollars a week for their wives in the Catskills already which they don't got it so comfortable. Ain't it a shame, Lesengeld, that with a charity like that which is really a charity, people don't support it better as they do?”
”I bet yer!” Lesengeld cried. ”The way some people acts not only they ain't got no hearts, y'understand, but they ain't got no sense, neither. I seen a case yesterday where an old _Rosher_ actually refuses to pay a month's rent for his son's widder _mit_ a little boy, to save 'em being put out on the sidewalk. Afterward he goes broke, understand me, and when the boy grows up he's got the nerve to make a touch from him a couple of dollars and the boy goes to work and gives it to him.
If I would be the boy the old man could starve to death; I wouldn't give him not one cent. They call us sharks, Belz, but compared with such a _Haman_ we ain't even sardines.”
”Sure, I know,” Belz said as he consulted the firm's diary; ”and if you wouldn't waste your time going on so many moving pictures, Lesengeld, might you would attend to business maybe. Yesterday was ten days that feller Rudnik's mortgage is past due, and what did you done about it?
Nothing, I suppose.”
”Suppose again, Belz,” Lesengeld retorted. ”A feller was in here to see me about it and I agreed we would give Rudnik an extension.”
”What!” Belz cried. ”You agreed you would give him an extension! Are you crazy _oder_ what? The way money is so tight nowadays and real estate gone to h.e.l.landall, we as good as could get a deed of that house from that feller.”
”Sure we could,” Lesengeld replied calmly, ”but we ain't going to. Once in a while, Belz, even in the second-mortgage business, circ.u.mstances alters cases, and this here is one of them cases; so before you are calling me all kinds of suckers, understand me, you should be so good and listen to what I got to tell you.”
Belz shrugged his shoulders resignedly.
”Go as far as you like,” he said, ”_aber_ if it's something which you seen it on a moving pictures, Lesengeld, I don't want to hear it at all.”
”It didn't happen on a moving pictures, Belz, but just the same if even you would seen it on a moving pictures you would say to yourself that with a couple of fellers like you and me, which a few hundred dollars one way or the other wouldn't make or break us, understand me, we would be all kinds of crooks and highwaymen if we would went to work and turn a lot of old widders out into the street.”
”Lesengeld,” Belz shouted impatiently, ”do me the favour and don't make no speeches. What has turning a lot of old widders into the street got to do with Rudnik's mortgage?”
”It's got a whole lot to do with it,” Lesengeld replied, ”because Rudnik's house he is leaving to a Home for old women, and if we take away the house from him then the Home wouldn't get his house, and the Home is in such shape, Belz, that if it wouldn't make a big killing in the way of a legacy soon they would bust up sure.”
”And that's all the reason why we should extend the mortgage on Rudnik?” Belz demanded.
”That's all the reason,” Lesengeld answered; ”with three hundred and fifty dollars a bonus.”
”Then all I could say is,” Belz declared, ”we wouldn't do nothing of the kind. What is three =hundred and fifty dollars a bonus in these times, Lesengeld?”
”But the Home,” Lesengeld protested.
”The Home should bust up,” Belz cried. ”What do I care about the Home?”
”_Aber_ the widders?” Lesengeld insisted. ”If the Home busts up the widders is thrown into the street. Ain't it?”
”What is that my fault, Lesengeld? Did I make 'em widders?”
”Sure, I know, Belz; _aber_ one or two of 'em ain't widders. One or two of 'em is old maids and they would got to go and live back with their relations. Especially”--he concluded with a twinkle in his eye--”especially one of 'em by the name Blooma Duckman.”
”Do you mean to told me,” Belz faltered, ”that them now--widders is in the Bella Hirshkind Home?”
”For Indignant Females,” Lesengeld added, ”which Max Schindelberger is president from it also.”
Belz nodded and remained silent for at least five minutes.