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Once a start had been made, I might expect to procure other pupils, even if they could not afford to pay so lavish a price as two dollars for three lessons But alas! My happiness was not to last long. I was giving Nodelman his fifth lesson. We were spelling out some syllables in a First Reader. Presently he grew absent-minded and then, suddenly pushing the school-book from him, said: "Too late!
There is an old story of a rabbi who, upon being asked by a bachelor whether he should marry, said: "If you do you will regret it, my son; but then if you remain single you are sure to regret it just as much; perhaps more. So get married like everybody else and regret it like everybody else." Nodelman now quoted that rabbi.
Why not apply to some money-lender? Why not make a vigorous appeal to Nodelman? He seemed to be an obliging fellow, so if I pressed him a little harder he might give me the cash as well as the goods I was impelled to retort that advice was cheap, and he apparently read my thoughts Presently he said, with genuine ardor: "I tell you what, Levinsky.
Meyer Nodelman, the son of my landlady, had not the remotest inkling of my plans, yet I had consulted him about them more than once. Of course, it was all done in a purely abstract way. Like the majority of our people, he was a talkative man so I would try to keep him talking shop.
The hostess led the way through the throng, introducing me to the guests as we proceeded. There were Nodelman's father and mother among them, the gigantic old tailor grinning childishly by the side of his wife, who looked glum "That one, with the dark eves, by the mantelpiece," Meyer Nodelman whispered to me, eagerly
"Look here, young fellow," he added; "since you were smart enough to get that Gentile and Meyer Nodelman to help you out, it ought not to be a hard job for you to get a third fellow to take an interest in you. Do you remember what I told you about those credit faces? I think you have got one." "I have an honest heart, too," I said, with a smile "Your heart I can't get into, so I don't know. See?
"There's a woman with a tongue for you," she said in an undertone. "Pitch and sulphur. When she opens her mouth people had better sound the fire-alarm." After a pause she added: "Do you know why her teeth are so bad? Her mouth is so full of poison, it has eaten them up." Presently the younger Mrs. Nodelman made her appearance. Her ruddy "meat-ball" face was fairly ablaze with excitement.
Arrived there, I had to pass several men, all in their shirt-sleeves, who were attacking mountains of cloth with long, narrow knives. One of these directed me to a remote window, in front of which I presently found Nodelman lecturing a man who wore a tape-measure around his neck Nodelman kept me waiting, without offering me a scat, a good half-hour.
"A bunch of good-for-nothings, too lazy to work, will stir up trouble, and there you are." "Oh, it won't last long," Meyer Nodelman consoled me. "Don't be excited, anyhow. Business does not always go like grease, you know. You must be ready for trouble too." He told me of his own experiences with unions and he drifted into a philosophic view of the matter.
"He is an educated fellow, and he doesn't care for money at all." "Doesn't care for money, eh?" the younger Nodelman jeered "Do you think money is really everything?" I shot back. "One might be able to find a thing or two which could not be bought with it." "Not even at Ridley's. You can't get brains there, can you?" "Well, I never learned to write, but I have a learned fellow in my office.
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