suit business this statement sounded a trifle exaggerated.
"And," he went on hurriedly, "he told me how he saw you and him with
Mrs. Lesengeld up at the hotel the other evening, and I says, 'What,' I
says, 'you don't mean Mrs. Lesengeld whose husband used to was in the
pants business?' and he said he didn't know, 'because,' I says, 'if
that's the same party,' I says, 'I would like for her to come up to the
hotel and take dinner with me some time,' I says."
He smiled cordially at Mrs. Lesengeld.
"And I hope you will," he concluded earnestly, "to-morrow night sure."
Mrs. Lesengeld shook her head.
"I ain't fixed to go to no swell hotel," she demurred. "I ain't got no
clothes nor nothing."
"What do you care about clothes, Mrs. Lesengeld?" Scharley protested.
"And besides," Yetta said with sudden inspiration, "we could get up a
little chafing-dish dinner in our room, ain't it?"
"For that matter we could do it in my room," Scharley cried, as there
sounded a vigorous knocking on the outside of the door leading to the
veranda, and a moment later Williams entered.
"Excuse me, Mr. Scharley," he said, "but I have to be getting back to
the hotel and if you're quite through we'll go and look at that map of
the lots down in the office."
Scharley waved his hand airily.
"Sit down, Mr. Williams," he said, "and drink the cup of coffee of your
life."
He handed the room clerk a cigar.
"I could promise you one thing, Mr. Williams," he went on, "I got a
great idee of buying some lots here and building a little house on 'em,
_gemuetlich_ just like this, and if I do, Williams, I would take them
lots from you for certain sure. Only one thing, Williams, I want you to
do me for a favour."
He paused and puffed carefully on his cigar.
"I want you to pick me out a couple good vacant rooms on the top floor
of the Salisbury for Saturday night," he said, "where I could give a
shaving-dish party, so if any of the guests of the hotel objects,
understand me, they wouldn't get the smell of the _Bortch_, coffee, and
brown stewed fish sweet and sour."
* * * * *
On the following Wednesday afternoon Elkan sat at his desk, while Marcus
Polatkin and Philip Scheikowitz leaned over his left shoulder and right
shoulder respectively, and watched carefully the result of a pencilled
addition which Elkan was making.
"With them crepe meteors," Elkan said at last, "Scharley's order comes
to four thousand three hundred dollars."
Polatkin and Scheikowitz nodded in unison.
"It ain't bad for a start," Scheikowitz volunteered as he sat down and
lit a cigar.
"For a finish, neither," Polatkin added, "so far as that's concerned."
Elkan wheeled round in his chair and grinned delightedly.
"And you ought to seen Sol Klinger when we walked into the Hanging
Gardens," he said. "He got white like a sheet. It tickled Scharley to
death, and he went right to work and put his arm through Mrs.
Lesengeld's arm and took her right down to the middle table, like she
would be a queen already."
"Sure," Scheikowitz agreed, "what does a real merchant like Scharley
care if she would wear a _sheitel oder_ not, so long as she is a lady
already."
Elkan's grin spread until it threatened to engulf his ears.
"She didn't wear no _sheitel_," he said.
"What!" Scheikowitz cried. "I didn't think a religious woman like Mrs.
Lesengeld would take off her _sheitel_ at _her_ time of life."
"What d'ye mean _her_ time of life?" Elkan cried indignantly. "Friday
afternoon yet before Yetta went home from her place there at Bognor
Park, Mrs. Lesengeld says to her that a widder don't got to wear no
_sheitel_ if she don't want to, which if you think, Mr. Scheikowitz,
that fifty-three is a time of life, understand me, I think differencely,
especially when I seen her with her hair all fixed up on Saturday
night."
"Who fixed it?" Marcus Polatkin asked, and Elkan grinned again.
"Who d'ye suppose?" he replied. "Why, her and Yetta spent pretty near an
hour up in our room before they got through, and I tell yer with the way
they turned up the hem and fixed the sleeves of one of Yetta's black
dresses, it fitted her like it would be made for her."
"And did she look good in it?" Scheikowitz inquired.
"Did she look good in it!" Elkan exclaimed. "Well, you can just bet your
life, Mr. Polatkin, that there Hortense Feldman wasn't one, two, six
with her. In fact, Mr. Polatkin, you would take your oath already that
there wasn't two years between 'em. I had a good chance to compare 'em
on account when we went down to the Hanging Gardens, understand me, Miss
Feldman sits at the next table already."
Polatkin smiled broadly.
"She must have had a big _Schreck_," he commented. "Why, B. Gans told me
last Saturday that Henry D. Feldman thinks that he's going to fix the
whole thing up between her and Scharley."
"I guess he ain't got that idee no longer," Elkan declared, "because
everybody in Egremont knows Scharley was down visiting Mrs. Lesengeld
over Sunday, and takes her and her daughter Fannie and Fannie's husband
out oitermobiling."
"You don't tell me?" Scheikowitz exclaimed.
"Furthermore, on Monday," Elkan continued, "he goes down there to dinner
with me and Yetta, and Mrs. Lesengeld cooks some _Tebeches_ which fairly
melts in your mouth already."
He smacked his lips over the recollection.
"Yesterday, as you know," he went on, "I took Scharley and Mrs.
Lesengeld over to Coney Island in an oitermobile and to-night yet we are
all going sailing on Egremont Bay."
Polatkin rose to his feet and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well," he said, "why not? They're about the same age."
"He's two years older as she is," Elkan declared, "and I bet yer they
wouldn't lose no time. It'll be next fall sure."
* * * * *
One busy morning three months later Elkan ripped open a heavy cream-laid
envelope and drew out the following announcement, engraved in shaded
old English type:
=Mrs. Fannie Stubin=
=has the honor of announcing the marriage=
=of her mother=
=Mrs. Sarah Lesengeld=
=to=
=Mr. Jacob Scharley=
=On Tuesday the first of October=
=at San Francisco, California=
"And what are we going to send them for a present?" Polatkin asked.
Elkan smiled serenely.
"A solid silver chafing dish," he replied without hesitation, "at the
very least, big enough to hold five pounds of brown stewed fish sweet
and sour."
THE END
[Illustration: Printer's Mark]
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
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| |
| Transcriber's Notes: |
| |
| The 1912 edition of this text contains numerous words and phrases |
| with variant spellings. For the most part these variations have |
| been retained to maintain the flavor of the original text, and |
| only obvious spelling and puncuation errors have been corrected, |
| as detailed below. A few changes have also been made with |
| formatting of punctuation for text consistency. |
| |
| The name of character Kent J. Goldenfein, who is introduced on |
| pages 142-145, changes on page 210 to Kent J. "Goldstein" and |
| subsequently remains "Goldstein" for the remainder of the story. |
| This inconsistency has been retained to match the 1912 text. |
| |
| |
| Typographical Corrections: |
| |
| Page 4. Added close-quotes. ("... Yosel to come to America.") |
| |
| Page 10. Removed close-quotes. (threshold of the cutting room.) |
| |
| Page 14. Changed question mark to comma. ("He is in Minsk," said |
| young Borrochson.) |
| |
| Page 27. Changed "de,manded" to "demanded". (Philip demanded.) |
| |
| Page 27. Changed "jerred" to "jeered". (Philip jeered.) |
| |
| Page 37. Removed close-quotes. (Polatkin rose to his feet.) |
| |
| Page 50. Added period. (the tops of her powdered cheeks.) |
| |
| Page 64. Changed "Scheikowizt" to "Scheikowitz". (Scheikowitz |
| protested.) |
| |
| Page 87. Changed "Sheikowitz" to "Scheikowitz". ("... Mr. |
| Scheikowitz, so sure as I am sitting here....") |
| |
| Page 91. Added open-quotes. ("I suppose, Elkan, you are |
| wondering....") |
| |
| Page 92. Changed "Poltakin" to "Polatkin". ("... Flixman's store?" |
| Polatkin asked.) |
| |
| Page 97. Changed "Mr" to "Mr." ("... right buying idee, Mr. |
| Kapfer....") |
| |
| Page 152. Removed close-quotes. (begun at dinner that evening.) |
| |
| Page 153. Added close-quotes. ("... oder Schwefel & Zucker.") |
| |
| Page 153. Changed "Kolbin's" to "Koblin's". (Max Koblin's house) |
| |
| Page 182. Removed end-quotes. (to make further inquiries.) |
| |
| Page 199. Added close-quotes. ("What time do you eat dinner?") |
| |
| Page 225. Changed "tansactions" to "transactions". (all |
| real-estate transactions involving) |
| |
| Page 241. Added close-quotes. ("... the other fellow's case.") |
| |
| Page 263. Added period. ("... makes up his mind yet.") |
| |
| Page 279. Added period. (his high, piping voice.) |
| |
| Page 281. Added comma. ("If we didn't," he continued....) |
| |
| Page 294. Added close-quotes. ("... for a couple of months.") |
| |
| Page 295. Changed "deprecatio" to "deprecation." (gesture of |
| deprecation.) |
| |
| Page 312. Corrected open-quotes. ("Brown stewed fish....") |
| |
| Page 317. Added close-quotes. ("... Scheikowitz & Company.") |
| |
| Page 320. Added close-quotes. ("... three hundred dollars.") |
| |
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End of Project Gutenberg's Elkan Lubliner, American, by Montague Glass