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Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People, a novel by Israel Zangwill |
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Book 1. Children Of The Ghetto - Chapter 17. The Hyams's Honeymoon |
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_ BOOK I. CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO CHAPTER XVII. THE HYAMS'S HONEYMOON "Beenah, hast thou heard aught about our Daniel?" There was a note of anxiety in old Hyams's voice. "Naught, Mendel." "Thou hast not heard talk of him and Sugarman's daughter?" "No, is there aught between them?" The listless old woman spoke a little eagerly. "Only that a man told me that his son saw our Daniel pay court to the maiden." "Where?" "At the Purim Ball." "The man is a tool; a youth must dance with some maiden or other." Miriam came in, fagged out from teaching. Old Hyams dropped from Yiddish into English. "You are right, he must." Beenah replied in her slow painful English. "Would he not have told us?" Mendel repeated:--"Would he not have told us?" Each avoided the others eye. Beenah dragged herself about the room, laying Miriam's tea. "Mother, I wish you wouldn't scrape your feet along the floor so. It gets on my nerves and I _am_ so worn out. Would he not have told you what? And who's he?" Beenah looked at her husband. "I heard Daniel was engaged," said old Hyams jerkily. Miriam started and flushed. "To whom?" she cried, in excitement. "Bessie Sugarman." "Sugarman's daughter?" Miriam's voice was pitched high. "Yes." Miriam's voice rose to a higher pitch. "Sugarman the _Shadchan's_ daughter?" "Yes." Miriam burst into a fit of incredulous laughter. "As if Daniel would marry into a miserable family like that!" "It is as good as ours," said Mendel, with white lips. His daughter looked at him astonished. "I thought your children had taught you more self-respect than that," she said quietly. "Mr. Sugarman is a nice person to be related to!" "At home, Mrs. Sugarman's family was highly respected," quavered old Hyams. "We are not at home now," said Miriam witheringly. "We're in England. A bad-tempered old hag!" "That is what she thinks me," thought Mrs. Hyams. But she said nothing. "Did you not see Daniel with her at the ball?" said Mr. Hyams, still visibly disquieted. "I'm sure I didn't notice," Miriam replied petulantly. "I think you must have forgot the sugar, mother, or else the tea is viler than usual. Why don't you let Jane cut the bread and butter instead of lazing in the kitchen?" "Jane has been washing all day in the scullery," said Mrs. Hyams apologetically. "H'm!" snapped Miriam, her pretty face looking peevish and careworn. "Jane ought to have to manage sixty-three girls whose ignorant parents let them run wild at home, and haven't the least idea of discipline. As for this chit of a Sugarman, don't you know that Jews always engage every fellow and girl that look at each other across the street, and make fun of them and discuss their united prospects before they are even introduced to each other." She finished her tea, changed her dress and went off to the theatre with a girl-friend. The really harassing nature of her work called for some such recreation. Daniel came in a little after she had gone out, and ate his supper, which was his dinner saved for him and warmed up in the oven. Mendel sat studying from an unwieldy folio which he held on his lap by the fireside and bent over. When Daniel had done supper and was standing yawning and stretching himself, Mendel said suddenly as if trying to bluff him: "Why don't you ask your father to wish you _Mazzoltov_?" "_Mazzoltov_? What for?" asked Daniel puzzled. "On your engagement." "My engagement!" repeated Daniel, his heart thumping against his ribs. "Yes--to Bessie Sugarman." Mendel's eye, fixed scrutinizingly on his boy's face, saw it pass from white to red and from red to white. Daniel caught hold of the mantel as if to steady himself. "But it is a lie!" he cried hotly. "Who told you that?" "No one; a man hinted as much." "But I haven't even been in her company." "Yes--at the Purim Ball." Daniel bit his lip. "Damned gossips!" he cried. "I'll never speak to the girl again." There was a tense silence for a few seconds, then old Hyams said: "Why not? You love her." Daniel stared at him, his heart palpitating painfully. The blood in his ears throbbed mad sweet music. "You love her," Mendel repeated quietly. "Why do you not ask her to marry you? Do you fear she would refuse?" Daniel burst into semi-hysterical laughter. Then seeing his father's half-reproachful, half-puzzled look he said shamefacedly: "Forgive me, father, I really couldn't help it. The idea of your talking about love! The oddity of it came over me all of a heap." "Why should I not talk about love?" "Don't be so comically serious, father," said Daniel, smiling afresh. "What's come over you? What have you to do with love? One would think you were a romantic young fool on the stage. It's all nonsense about love. I don't love anybody, least of all Bessie Sugarman, so don't you go worrying your old head about _my_ affairs. You get back to that musty book of yours there. I wonder if you've suddenly come across anything about love in that, and don't forget to use the reading glasses and not your ordinary spectacles, else it'll be a sheer waste of money. By the way, mother, remember to go to the Eye Hospital on Saturday to be tested. I feel sure it's time you had a pair of specs, too." "Don't I look old enough already?" thought Mrs. Hyams. But she said, "Very well, Daniel," and began to clear away his supper. "That's the best of being in the fancy," said Daniel cheerfully. "There's no end of articles you can get at trade prices." He sat for half an hour turning over the evening paper, then went to bed. Mr. and Mrs. Hyams's eyes sought each other involuntarily but they said nothing. Mrs. Hyams fried a piece of _Wurst_ for Miriam's supper and put it into the oven to keep hot, then she sat down opposite Mendel to stitch on a strip of fur, which had got unripped on one of Miriam's jackets. The fire burnt briskly, little flames leaped up with a crackling sound, the clock ticked quietly. Beenah threaded her needle at the first attempt. "I can still see without spectacles," she thought bitterly. But she said nothing. Mendel looked up furtively at her several times from his book. The meagreness of her parchment flesh, the thickening mesh of wrinkles, the snow-white hair struck him with almost novel force. But he said nothing. Beenah patiently drew her needle through and through the fur, ever and anon glancing at Mendel's worn spectacled face, the eyes deep in the sockets, the forehead that was bent over the folio furrowed painfully beneath the black _Koppel_, the complexion sickly. A lump seemed to be rising in her throat. She bent determinedly over her sewing, then suddenly looked up again. This time their eyes met. They did not droop them; a strange subtle flash seemed to pass from soul to soul. They gazed at each other, trembling on the brink of tears. "Beenah." The voice was thick with suppressed sobs. "Yes, Mendel." "Thou hast heard?" "Yes, Mendel." "He says he loves her not." "So he says." "It is lies, Beenah." "But wherefore should he lie?" "Thou askest with thy mouth, not thy heart. Thou knowest that he wishes us not to think that he remains single for our sake. All his money goes to keep up this house we live in. It is the law of Moses. Sawest thou not his face when I spake of Sugarman's daughter?" Beenah rocked herself to and fro, crying: "My poor Daniel, my poor lamb! Wait a little. I shall die soon. The All-High is merciful. Wait a little." Mendel caught Miriam's jacket which was slipping to the floor and laid it aside. "It helps not to cry," said he gently, longing to cry with her. "This cannot be. He must marry the maiden whom his heart desires. Is it not enough that he feels that we have crippled his life for the sake of our Sabbath? He never speaks of it, but it smoulders in his veins." "Wait a little!" moaned Beenah, still rocking to and fro. "Nay, calm thyself." He rose and passed his horny hand tenderly over her white hair. "We must not wait. Consider how long Daniel has waited." "Yes, my poor lamb, my poor lamb!" sobbed the old woman. "If Daniel marries," said the old man, striving to speak firmly, "we have not a penny to live upon. Our Miriam requires all her salary. Already she gives us more than she can spare. She is a lady, in a great position. She must dress finely. Who knows, too, but that we are in the way of a gentleman marrying her? We are not fit to mix with high people. But above all, Daniel must marry and I must earn your and my living as I did when the children were young." "But what wilt thou do?" said Beenah, ceasing to cry and looking up with affrighted face. "Thou canst not go glaziering. Think of Miriam. What canst thou do, what canst thou do? Thou knowest no trade!" "No, I know no trade," he said bitterly. "At home, as thou art aware, I was a stone-mason, but here I could get no work without breaking the Sabbath, and my hand has forgotten its cunning. Perhaps I shall get my hand back." He took hers in the meantime. It was limp and chill, though so near the fire. "Have courage." he said. "There is naught I can do here that will not shame Miriam. We cannot even go into an almshouse without shedding her blood. But the Holy One, blessed be He, is good. I will go away." "Go away!" Beenah's clammy hand tightened her clasp of his. "Thou wilt travel with ware in the country?" "No. If it stands written that I must break with my children, let the gap be too wide for repining. Miriam will like it better. I will go to America." "To America!" Beenah's heartbeat wildly. "And leave me?" A strange sense of desolation swept over her. "Yes--for a little, anyhow. Thou must not face the first hardships. I shall find something to do. Perhaps in America there are more Jewish stone-masons to get work from. God will not desert us. There I can sell ware in the streets--do as I will. At the worst I can always fall back upon glaziering. Have faith, my dove." The novel word of affection thrilled Beenah through and through. "I shall send thee a little money; then as soon as I can see my way dear I shall send for thee and thou shalt come out to me and we will live happily together and our children shall live happily here." But Beenah burst into fresh tears. "Woe! Woe!" she sobbed. "How wilt thou, an old man, face the sea and the strange faces all alone? See how sorely thou art racked with rheumatism. How canst thou go glaziering? Thou liest often groaning all the night. How shalt thou carry the heavy crate on thy shoulders?" "God will give me strength to do what is right." The tears were plain enough in his voice now and would not be denied. His words forced themselves out in a husky wheeze. Beenah threw her arms round his neck. "No! No!" she cried hysterically. "Thou shalt not go! Thou shalt not leave me!" "I must go," his parched lips articulated. He could not see that the snow of her hair had drifted into her eyes and was scarce whiter than her cheeks. His spectacles were a blur of mist. "No, no," she moaned incoherently. "I shall die soon. God is merciful. Wait a little, wait a little. He will kill us both soon. My poor lamb, my poor Daniel! Thou shalt not leave me." The old man unlaced her arms from his neck. "I must. I have heard God's word in the silence." "Then I will go with thee. Wherever thou goest I will go." "No, no; thou shall not face the first hardships, I will front them alone; I am strong, I am a man." "And thou hast the heart to leave me?" She looked piteously into his face, but hers was still hidden from him in the mist. But through the darkness the flash passed again. His hand groped for her waist, he drew her again towards him and put the arms he had unlaced round his neck and stooped his wet cheek to hers. The past was a void, the forty years of joint housekeeping, since the morning each had seen a strange face on the pillow, faded to a point. For fifteen years they had been drifting towards each other, drifting nearer, nearer in dual loneliness; driven together by common suffering and growing alienation from the children they had begotten in common; drifting nearer, nearer in silence, almost in unconsciousness. And now they had met. The supreme moment of their lives had come. The silence of forty years was broken. His withered lips sought hers and love flooded their souls at last. When the first delicious instants were over, Mendel drew a chair to the table and wrote a letter in Hebrew script and posted it and Beenah picked up Miriam's jacket. The crackling flames had subsided to a steady glow, the clock ticked on quietly as before, but something new and sweet and sacred had come into her life, and Beenah no longer wished to die. When Miriam came home, she brought a little blast of cold air into the room. Beenah rose and shut the door and put out Miriam's supper; she did not drag her feet now. "Was it a nice play, Miriam?" said Beenah softly. "The usual stuff and nonsense!" said Miriam peevishly. "Love and all that sort of thing, as if the world never got any older." At breakfast next morning old Hyams received a letter by the first post. He carefully took his spectacles off and donned his reading-glasses to read it, throwing the envelope carelessly into the fire. When he had scanned a few lines he uttered an exclamation of surprise and dropped the letter. "What's the matter, father?" said Daniel, while Miriam tilted her snub nose curiously. "Praised be God!" was all the old man could say. "Well, what is it? Speak!" said Beenah, with unusual animation, while a flush of excitement lit up Miriam's face and made it beautiful. "My brother in America has won a thousand pounds on the lotter_ee_ and he invites me and Beenah to come and live with him." "Your brother in America!" repeated his children staring. "Why, I didn't know you had a brother in America," added Miriam. "No, while he was poor, I didn't mention him," replied Mendel, with unintentional sarcasm. "But I've heard from him several times. We both came over from Poland together, but the Board of Guardians sent him and a lot of others on to New York." "But you won't go, father!" said Daniel. "Why not? I should like to see my brother before I die. We were very thick as boys." "But a thousand pounds isn't so very much," Miriam could not refrain from saying. Old Hyams had thought it boundless opulence and was now sorry he had not done his brother a better turn. "It will be enough for us all to live upon, he and Beenah and me. You see his wife died and he has no children." "You don't really mean to go?" gasped Daniel, unable to grasp the situation suddenly sprung upon him. "How will you get the money to travel with?" "Read here!" said Mendel, quietly passing him the letter. "He offers to send it." "But it's written in Hebrew!" cried Daniel, turning it upside down hopelessly. "You can read Hebrew writing surely," said his father. "I could, years and years ago. I remember you taught me the letters. But my Hebrew correspondence has been so scanty--" He broke off with a laugh and handed the letter to Miriam, who surveyed it with mock comprehension. There was a look of relief in her eyes as she returned it to her father. "He might have sent something to his nephew and his niece," she said half seriously. "Perhaps he will when I get to America and tell him how pretty you are," said Mendel oracularly. He looked quite joyous and even ventured to pinch Miriam's flushed cheek roguishly, and she submitted to the indignity without a murmur. "Why _you're_ looking as pleased as Punch too, mother," said Daniel, in half-rueful amazement. "You seem delighted at the idea of leaving us." "I always wanted to see America," the old woman admitted with a smile. "I also shall renew an old friendship in New York." She looked meaningly at her husband, and in his eye was an answering love-light. "Well, that's cool!" Daniel burst forth. "But she doesn't mean it, does she, father?" "I mean it." Hyams answered. "But it can't be true," persisted Daniel, in ever-growing bewilderment. "I believe it's all a hoax." Mendel hastily drained his coffee-cup. "A hoax!" he murmured, from behind the cup. "Yes, I believe some one is having a lark with you." "Nonsense!" cried Mendel vehemently, as he put down his coffee-cup and picked up the letter from the table. "Don't I know my own brother Yankov's writing. Besides, who else would know all the little things he writes about?" Daniel was silenced, but lingered on after Miriam had departed to her wearisome duties. "I shall write at once, accepting Yankov's offer," said his father. "Fortunately we took the house by the week, so you can always move out if it is too large for you and Miriam. I can trust you to look after Miriam, I know, Daniel." Daniel expostulated yet further, but Mendel answered: "He is so lonely. He cannot well come over here by himself because he is half paralyzed. After all, what have I to do in England? And the mother naturally does not care to leave me. Perhaps I shall get my brother to travel with me to the land of Israel, and then we shall all end our days in Jerusalem, which you know has always been my heart's desire." Neither mentioned Bessie Sugarman. "Why do you make so much bother?" Miriam said to Daniel in the evening. "It's the best thing that could have happened. Who'd have dreamed at this hour of the day of coming into possession of a relative who might actually have something to leave us. It'll be a good story to tell, too." After _Shool_ next morning Mendel spoke to the President. "Can you lend me six pounds?" he asked. Belcovitch staggered. "Six pounds!" he repeated, dazed. "Yes. I wish to go to America with my wife. And I want you moreover to give your hand as a countryman that you will not breathe a word of this, whatever you hear. Beenah and I have sold a few little trinkets which our children gave us, and we have reckoned that with six pounds more we shall be able to take steerage passages and just exist till I get work." "But six pounds is a very great sum--without sureties," said Belcovitch, rubbing his time-worn workaday high hat in his agitation. "I know it is!" answered Mendel, "but God is my witness that I mean to pay you. And if I die before I can do so I vow to send word to my son Daniel, who will pay you the balance. You know my son Daniel. His word is an oath." "But where shall I get six pounds from?" said Bear helplessly. "I am only a poor tailor, and my daughter gets married soon. It is a great sum. By my honorable word, it is. I have never lent so much in my life, nor even been security for such an amount." Mendel dropped his head. There was a moment of anxious silence. Bear thought deeply. "I tell you what I'll do," said Bear at last. "I'll lend you five if you can manage to come out with that." Mendel gave a great sigh of relief. "God shall bless you," he said. He wrung the sweater's hand passionately. "I dare say we shall find another sovereign's-worth to sell." Mendel clinched the borrowing by standing the lender a glass of rum, and Bear felt secure against the graver shocks of doom. If the worst come to the worst now, he had still had something for his money. And so Mendel and Beenah sailed away over the Atlantic. Daniel accompanied them to Liverpool, but Miriam said she could not get a day's holiday--perhaps she remembered the rebuke Esther Ansell had drawn down on herself, and was chary of asking. At the dock in the chill dawn, Mendel Hyams kissed his son Daniel on the forehead and said in a broken voice: "Good-bye. God bless you." He dared not add and God bless your Bessie, my daughter-in-law to be; but the benediction was in his heart. Daniel turned away heavy-hearted, but the old man touched him on the shoulder and said in a low tremulous voice: "Won't you forgive me for putting you into the fancy goods?" "Father! What do you mean?" said Daniel choking. "Surely you are not thinking of the wild words I spoke years and years ago. I have long forgotten them." "Then you will remain a good Jew," said Mendel, trembling all over, "even when we are far away?" "With God's help," said Daniel. And then Mendel turned to Beenah and kissed her, weeping, and the faces of the old couple were radiant behind their tears. Daniel stood on the clamorous hustling wharf, watching the ship move slowly from her moorings towards the open river, and neither he nor any one in the world but the happy pair knew that Mendel and Beenah were on their honeymoon. * * * * * Mrs. Hyams died two years after her honeymoon, and old Hyams laid a lover's kiss upon her sealed eyelids. Then, being absolutely alone in the world, he sold off his scanty furniture, sent the balance of the debt with a sovereign of undemanded interest to Bear Belcovitch, and girded up his loins for the journey to Jerusalem, which had been the dream of his life. But the dream of his life had better have remained a dream Mendel saw the hills of Palestine and the holy Jordan and Mount Moriah, the site of the Temple, and the tombs of Absalom and Melchitsedek, and the gate of Zion and the aqueduct built by Solomon, and all that he had longed to see from boyhood. But somehow it was not _his_ Jerusalem--scarce more than his London Ghetto transplanted, only grown filthier and narrower and more ragged, with cripples for beggars and lepers in lieu of hawkers. The magic of his dream-city was not here. This was something prosaic, almost sordid. It made his heart sink as he thought of the sacred splendors of the Zion he had imaged in his suffering soul. The rainbows builded of his bitter tears did not span the firmament of this dingy Eastern city, set amid sterile hills. Where were the roses and lilies, the cedars and the fountains? Mount Moriah was here indeed, but it bore the Mosque of Omar, and the Temple of Jehovah was but one ruined wall. The Shechinah, the Divine Glory, had faded into cold sunshine. "Who shall go up into the Mount of Jehovah." Lo, the Moslem worshipper and the Christian tourist. Barracks and convents stood on Zion's hill. His brethren, rulers by divine right of the soil they trod, were lost in the chaos of populations--Syrians, Armenians, Turks, Copts, Abyssinians, Europeans--as their synagogues were lost amid the domes and minarets of the Gentiles. The city was full of venerated relics of the Christ his people had lived--and died--to deny, and over all flew the crescent flag of the Mussulman. And so every Friday, heedless of scoffing on-lookers, Mendel Hyams kissed the stones of the Wailing Place, bedewing their barrenness with tears; and every year at Passover, until he was gathered to his fathers, he continued to pray: "Next year--in Jerusalem!" _ |
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