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"What an idea!" murmured Esther, blushing beneath her spotted veil. "Well, you're very young," said Hannah, glancing down at the smaller figure with a sweet matronly smile. "I shall never marry," Esther said in low tones. "Don't be ridiculous, Esther! There's no happiness for a woman without it. You needn't talk like Miriam Hyams at least not yet. Oh yes, I know what you're thinking "
His arrival was the signal for the commencement of the proceedings, and the men hastened to assume their head-gear. Ephraim Phillips cautiously took the swaddled-up infant from the bosom of Milly where it was suckling and presented it to old Hyams. Fortunately Ezekiel had already had a repletion of milk, and was drowsy and manifested very little interest in the whole transaction.
Their marriage had been a matter of contract. Forty years ago, in Poland, Mendel Hyams had awoke one morning to find a face he had never seen before on the pillow beside his. Not even on the wedding-day had he been allowed a glimpse of his bride's countenance. That was the custom of the country and the time.
And so every Friday, heedless of scoffing on-lookers, Mendel Hyams kissed the stones of the Wailing Place, bedewing their barrenness with tears; and every year at Passover, until he was gathered to his fathers, he continued to pray: "Next year in Jerusalem!" "Ah, the Men-of-the-Earth!" said Pinchas to Reb Shemuel, "ignorant fanatics, how shall a movement prosper in their hands?
But when Nancy found that certain of her class were hazing the new-comers in a serious way, she took the class to task for it. She called a meeting and reminded them that it would displease both the new captains of the school Mary Miggs on the West Side and Polly Hyams on the East as well as Madame Schakael herself, if hazing of the new girls continued.
"Don't let us all go mad," said Samuel, bewildered. "How can a piece of fun, a joke, be a valid marriage?" "The law takes no account of jokes," said old Hyams solemnly. "Then why didn't you stop me?" asked Sam, exasperated. "It was all done in a moment. I laughed myself; I had no time to think." Sam brought his fist down on the table with a bang. "Well, I'll never believe this!
He buttoned up his coat, and, drinking a glass of hot whisky, went out whistling. He had just reached the door when the pawnbroker called him back. "If you like to take a cab, Levi," he said, in a low voice so that the assistant should not hear, "I'll pay for it." "I'll take an omnibus," said Levi, smiling quietly. "You're getting extravagant, Hyams.
"I always wanted to see America," the old woman admitted with a smile. "I also shall renew an old friendship in New York." She looked meaningly at her husband, and in his eye was an answering love-light. "Well, that's cool!" Daniel burst forth. "But she doesn't mean it, does she, father?" "I mean it." Hyams answered. "But it can't be true," persisted Daniel, in ever-growing bewilderment.
"You'll never marry a teacher, then," Hannah remarked. "Teacher!" Miriam Hyams repeated, with a look of disgust. "How can one be respectable on three pounds a week? I must have a man in a good position." She tossed her piquant nose and looked almost handsome. She was five years older than Hannah, and it seemed an enigma why men did not rush to lay five pounds a week at her daintily shod feet.
One evening, at a large dinner-party at Governor Moore's, at which were present several members of the Louisiana Legislature, Taylor, Bragg, and the Attorney-General Hyams, after the ladies had left the table, I noticed at Governor Moore's end quite a lively discussion going on, in which my name was frequently used; at length the Governor called to me, saying: "Colonel Sherman, you can readily understand that, with your brother the abolitionist candidate for Speaker, some of our people wonder that you should be here at the head of an important State institution.
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