United States or Svalbard and Jan Mayen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Almost on tiptoe Professor Ladislaw Wcelak followed him, while Aaron repaired to the cutting room and packed up his belongings, preparatory to forsaking a career as cutter for one of music. At length only old man Hubai remained. "What are you waiting for?" Morris demanded. "Me poor man," Hubai said. "Me no got carfare, me no got Trinkgeld, me no got nothing."
Old man Hubai stood in the middle of the showroom; and with clenched fists waving in the air he appealed to heaven to witness that he was a poor man and spoke nothing but the Hungarian tongue. Hence he was at the mercy of such ruffians as Pilz and Wcelak, whose right name he averred to be Kohn.
Following this he swore by his mother that he had paid a thousand kronen for the violin, and da capo from the exposition of his poverty. Simultaneously Professor Ladislaw Wcelak dwelt on the economic aspect of the matter.
"A feller like him sells you a three-thousand-dollar violin for fifteen dollars which he ain't got a penny in the world, y'understand, and I should stand by and see him get done!" Professor Wcelak hung his head and blushed. "Also, Louis," Emil concluded, "I just rung him up at the café, and he says whatever he gets out of it I get half."
I don't know what he's got to do with this business but he may know, anyhow." Wcelak interpreted Morris's words and showed the label to the old man, who replied volubly in Hungarian. "He says he thinks it is," the professor said, "but he doesn't know for sure." "Well, I know it is the same," Morris retorted, "because I took it out there myself this morning."
But all I got to say is, Mawruss, the idee is yours, and you should go ahead and carry it out. Me, I got nothing to say about it either one way or the other." At seven that evening, while Professor Ladislaw Wcelak was washing down a late breakfast with a bottle of beer, there came a violent knocking at the hall door.
"That other crazy Indian over there," Morris continued, pointing to the professor, "look at this label. Ain't it the same which was in the fiddle?" Ladislaw Wcelak examined the printed slip and he, too, nodded. Next, Morris turned to old man Hubai, who stood apart muttering to himself. "Some one ask that old greenhorn if it's the same label that was in the fiddle.
His lean, scholarly face, surmounted by a shock of wavy brown hair, would have assured his success as a virtuoso, and no one knew this better than his brother, Professor Ladislaw Wcelak, under whose tuition he had struggled through the intricacies of the first and second positions.
He sang the two measures in a clear tenor voice, whereat Louis snatched the violin from his brother's grasp and, seating himself at the piano, he struck the major triad of C natural with force sufficient to wreck the instrument. "Sing 'Ah'!" he commanded. Aaron attacked the high C like a veteran and Professor Ladislaw Wcelak leaped from the piano stool with an inarticulate cry.
Word Of The Day