Page:Zangwill-King of schnorrers.djvu/26

12 12 THE KING OF SCHNORRERS.

" No," assented the Schnorrer sternly. "The poor man has the fear of Heaven. He obeys the Law and the Com- mandments. He marries while he is young — and his spouse is not cursed with barrenness. It is the rich man who transgresses the Judgment, who delays to come under the Canopy."

" Ah ! well, here is a guinea — in the name of my wife," broke in Grobstock laughingly. " Or stay — since you do not brush spatterdashes — here is another."

" In the name of my wife," rejoined the Schnorrer with dignity, " I thank you."

"Thank me in your own name," said Grobstock. "I mean tell it me."

" I am Manasseh Bueno Barzillai Azevedo da Costa," he answered simply.

" A Sephardi ! " exclaimed the philanthropist.

" Is it not written on my face, even as it is written on yours that you are aTedesco? It is the first time that I have taken gold from one of your lineage."

" Oh, indeed ! " murmured Grobstock, beginning to feel small again.

"Yes — are we not far richer than your community? What need have I to take the good deeds away from my own people — they have too few opportunities for benefi- cence as it is, being so many of them wealthy ; brokers and West India merchants, and — "

" But I, too, am a financier, and an East India Director," Grobstock reminded him.

" Maybe ; but your community is yet young and struggling — your rich men are as the good men in .Sodom for multi- tude. You are the immigrants of yesterday — refugees from the Ghettoes of Russia and Poland and Germany. But we, as you are aware, have been established here for generations ;