A ROSE OF THE GHETTO. 315
weary of the contest, called over Leibel, till that moment carefully absorbed in his scientific chalk-marks, and men- tioned the thing to him for the first time. " I am not a man to bargain," Eliphaz said, and so he gave the young man his tawny hand, and a bottle of rum sprang from some- where, and work was suspended for five minutes, and the " hands " all drank amid surprised excitement. Sugarman's visits had prepared them to congratulate Rose. But Leibel was a shock.
The formal engagement was marked by even greater junketing, and at last the marriage-day came. Leibel was resplendent in a diagonal frock-coat, cut by his own hand, and Rose stepped from the cab a medley of flowers, fairness, and white silk, and behind her came two bridesmaids — her sisters — a trio that glorified the spectator-strewn pave- ment outside the Synagogue. Eliphaz looked almost tall in his shiny high hat and frilled shirt-front. Sugarman arrived on foot, carrying red-socked little Ebenezer tucked under his arm.
Leibel and Rose were not the only couple to be disposed of, for it was the thirty-third day of the Omer — a day fruit- ful in marriages.
But at last their turn came. They did not, however, come in their turn, and their special friends among the audience wondered why they had lost their precedence. After several later marriages had taken place, a whisper be- gan to circulate. The rumour of a hitch gained ground steadily, and the sensation was proportionate. And, indeed, the rose was not to be picked without a touch of the thorn.
Gradually the facts leaked out, and a buzz of talk and comment ran through the waiting Synagogue. Eliphaz had not paid up !
At first he declared he would put down the money im-
