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308 308 A ROSE OF THE GHETTO.

a

I — I — know," stammered Leibel. "But I've — I've altered my mind."

" One needs Hillel's patience to deal with you ! " cried Sugarman. " But I shall charge you all the same for my trouble. You cannot cancel an order like this in the middle ! No, no ! You can play fast and loose with Leah Volcovitch. But you shall not make a fool of me."

" But if I don't want one? " said Leibel sullenly.

Sugarman gazed at him with a cunning look of suspicion. "Didn't I say there was something sticking behind?"

Leibel felt guilty. " But whom have you got in your eye?" he enquired desperately.

" Perhaps you may have some one in yours ! " naively answered Sugarman.

Leibel gave a hypocritic long-drawn, " U-m-m-m. I wonder if Rose Green — where I work — " he said, and stopped.

" I fear not," said Sugarman. " She is on my list. Her father gave her to me some months ago, but he is hard to please. Even the maiden herself is not easy, being pretty."

" Perhaps she has waited for some one," suggested Leibel.

Sugarman's keen ear caught the note of complacent triumph.

"You have been asking her yourself!" he exclaimed in horror-stricken accents.

"And if I have?" said Leibel defiantly.

" You have cheated me ! And so has Eliphaz Green — I always knew he was tricky ! You have both defrauded me!"

" I did not mean to," said Leibel mildly.

"You did mean to. You had no business to take the matter out of my hands. What right had you to propose to Rose Green? "