I WAS rapidly advancing on the road to financial triumphs. I was planning to move my business to larger quarters, in the same modest neighborhood. Mrs.
Chaikin, my partner"s wife, failed to realize the situation, however.
She could not forgive me the false representations I had made to her regarding my a.s.sets
"And where is the treasure you were expecting?" she would twit me. "You never tell a lie, do you? You simply don"t know how to do it. Poor thing!"
When we were in the midst of an avalanche of lucrative orders promising a brilliant winter season she took it into her head to withdraw her husband from the firm, in which he was a silent partner. Her decision was apparently based on the extreme efforts she had once seen me making to raise five hundred dollars. As a matter of fact, this was due to the rapidity of our growth. I lacked capital. But then my credit was growing, too, and altogether things were in a most encouraging condition
"What is the use worrying along like that?" she said. "You deceived me from the start. You made me believe you had a lot of money, while you were really a beggar. Yes, you are a beggar, and a beggar you are bound to stay. A beggar and a swindler--that"s what you are. You have fooled me long enough.
You can"t fool me any longer. So there!"
Her husband was still employed by the German firm, attending to the needs of our growing little factory surrept.i.tiously every evening and on Sundays. The day seemed near when it would pay him to give all his time to our shop. And he was aware of it, too; to some extent, at least. But Mrs. Chaikin ordained otherwise
I attempted to present the actual state of affairs to her, but broke off in the middle of a sentence. It suddenly flashed upon my mind that it might all be to my advantage. "A designer can be hired," I said to myself. "The business is progressing rapidly. To make him my life partner is too high a price to pay for his skill. Besides, having him for a partner actually means having his nuisance of a wife for a partner. It will be a good thing to get rid of her." I consulted Max, as I did quite often now. Not that I thought myself in need of his advice, or anybody else"s, for that matter. Success had made me too self-confident for that. I played the intimate and ardent friend, and this was simply part of my personation. To flatter his vanity I would make him think his suggestions had been acted upon and that they had brought good results. As a consequence, he was developing the notion that my success was largely due to his guidance, a notion which jarred on me, but which I humored, nevertheless
"Do you know what"s the matter?" he said, sagely. "Mrs. Chaikin must have found another partner for her husband. Some fellow with big money, I suppose."
"You are right, Max," I said, sincerely. "How stupid I am."
"Why, of course they have got another partner. Of course they have," he repeated, with elation. "So much the better for you. Let them go to the eighty black years. Don"t run after him. Just do as I tell you and you"ll be all right, Levinsky. My advice has never got you in trouble, has it?"
"Indeed not. Indeed not," I answered
Max"s blindness to what was going on between Dora and myself was a riddle to which I vainly sought a solution. That this cynic who charged every man and woman with immorality should, in the circ.u.mstances, be so absolutely undisturbed in his confidence regarding his wife seemed nothing short of a miracle. When I now think of the riddle I see its solution in a modified version of the old rule concerning the mote in thy neighbor"s eye and the beam in thine own eve. Your worst pessimist is, after all, an optimist with regard to himself. We are quick to recognize the gravity of ill health in somebody else, yet we ourselves may be on the very brink of death without realizing it. It is a special phase of selfishness. We are loath to connect the idea of a catastrophe with our own person. Max, who saw a mote in the eye of everybody else"s wife, failed to perceive the beam in the eye of his own
As for Sadie, who lived in the same house now, and who visited Dora"s apartment at all hours, she was too silly and too deeply infatuated with her friend to suspect her of anything wrong
I idolized Dora. It seemed to me that I adored her soul even more than I did her body. I was under her moral influence, and the firmness with which she maintained the distance between us added to my respect for her. And yet I never ceased to dream of and to seek her moral downfall
I had extended my canva.s.sing activities to a number of cities outside New York, my territory being a semicircle with a radius of about a hundred and fifty miles. I had long since picked up some of the business jargon of the country and I was thirstily drinking in more and more
"What do you think of this number, Mr. So-and-so?" I would say, self-consciously, to a merchant, as I dangled a garment in front of him.
"You can make a run on it. It"s the kind of suit that gives the wearer an air of distinction."
If I heard a bit of business rhetoric that I thought effective I would jot it down and commit it to memory. In like manner I would write down every new piece of slang, the use of the latest popular phrase being, as I thought, helpful in making oneself popular with Americans, especially with those of the young generation. But somehow a slang phrase would be in general use for a considerable time before it attracted my attention. The Americans I met were so quick to discern and adopt these phrases it seemed as if they were born with a special slang sense which I, poor foreigner that I was, lacked.
That I was not born in America was something like a physical defect that a.s.serted itself in many disagreeable ways--a physical defect which, alas! no surgeon in the world was capable of removing
Other things that I would enter in my note-book were names of dishes on the bills of fare of the better restaurants, with explanations of my own. I would describe the difference between Roquefort cheese and Liederkranz cheese, between consomme Celestine and consomme princesse; I would make a note of the composition of macaroni au gratin, the appearance and taste of potatoes Lyonnaise, of various salad-dressings. But I gradually picked up this information in a practical way and really had no need of my culinary notes. I had many occasions to eat in high-cla.s.s restaurants and I was getting to feel quite at home in them
Max"s conjecture regarding Chaikin was borne out. The talented designer had given up his job at the Manheimer Brothers" and opened a cloak-and-suit house with a man who had made considerable money as a cloak salesman, and as a landlord for a partner. When Max heard of it he was overjoyed
"I tell you what, Levinsky," he said, half in jest and half in earnest.
"Let the two of us make a partnership of it. I could put some money into the business."
I reflected that when I approached him for a loan of four hundred dollars, on my first visit at his house, he had pleaded poverty
"I could do a good deal of hustling, too," he added, gravely.
"Between the two of us we should make a great success of it."
I gave him an evasive answer. I must have looked annoyed, for he exclaimed: "Look at him! Look at him, Dora! Scared to death, isn"t he?" And to me: "Don"t be uneasy, old chap! I am not going to s.n.a.t.c.h your factory from you.
But you are a big hog, all the same. I can tell you that. How will you manage all alone? Who will take care of your business when you go traveling?"
"Oh, I"ll manage it somehow," I answered, making an effort to be pleasant.
"Chaikin was scarcely ever in the shop, anyhow."
CHAPTER XVII
I TRAVELED quite often, sometimes staying away from New York for two or three days, but more frequently for only one day. On one occasion, however, I was detained on the road for five days in succession. It was the beginning of June, a little over a year since the Margolises moved into the Clinton Street flat with myself as their boarder. I was homesick. I missed Dora acutely. I loved her pa.s.sionately, tenderly, devotedly. I now felt it with special force. Her face and figure loomed up a hundred times a day.
"Dora dear! Bridie mine!" I would whisper, all but going to pieces with tenderness and yearning
One afternoon, after closing an unexpectedly large sale in a department store, I went to the jewelry department of the same firm and paid a hundred and twenty dollars for a bracelet. I knew that she would not be able to wear it, yet I was determined to make her accept it
"Let her keep it in some hiding-place," I thought. "Let her steal an occasional look at it. I don"t care what she does with it. I want her to know that I think of her, that I am crazy for her."
It was Friday evening when I returned to New York, having been on the road since the preceding Monday morning. I first went to my place of business and then to a restaurant for supper. I would not make my appearance at the house until half past 10, when the coast was sure to be clear. With thrills of antic.i.p.ation that verged on physical pain I was looking forward to the moment when I should close the bracelet about her slender white wrist
At the fixed minute I was at the door of the Clinton Street apartment. I pulled the bell. I expected an excited rush, a violent opening of the door, a tremulous: "My loved one! My loved one!"
There was a peculiar disappointment in store for me. She received me icily, not letting me come near her
"Why, what"s the matter? What"s up?" "Nothing," she muttered
When we reached the light of the Sabbath candles in the dining-room I noticed that she looked worn and haggard
"What has happened?" I asked, greatly perplexed. "I have something for you," I said, producing the blue-velvet box containing the bracelet and opening it. "Here, my bride!"
"How dare you call me "bride," you hypocrite?" she gasped. "Away with you, your present and all!"
"Why? Why? What does it all mean?" I asked, between mirth and perplexity
For an answer she merely continued: "You thought you could bribe me by this present of yours, did you? You can fool me no longer. I have found you out.
You have fallen into your own trap. You have. How dare you buy me presents?"
At this she tore the bracelet out of my hand and flung it into the little corridor. She was on the verge of a fit of hysterics. I fetched her a gla.s.s of water, but she dashed it out of my hand. Then, frightened and sobered by the crash, she first tiptoed to the bedroom to ascertain if Lucy was not awake and listening, and then went to the little corridor, picked up the bracelet and slipped it into my pocket
"If you have decided to get married, I can"t stop you, of course,"
she began, in a ghastly undertone, as she crouched to gather up the fragments of the gla.s.s and to wipe the floor.
"Decided to get married?" I interrupted her. "Where on earth did you get that? What "trap" are you talking about, Dora?"