"To know me and to marry me off, hey? And yet you claim to be a friend of mine."
"Well, it"s no use talking. You"ll have to come."
I received a formal invitation, written in English by Mrs.
Nodelman, and on a Friday night in May I was in my friend"s house for supper, as Nodelman called it, or "dinner," as his wife would have it
The family occupied one of a small group of lingering, brownstone, private dwellings in a neighborhood swarming with the inmates of new tenement "barracks."
"Glad to meechye," Mrs. Nodelman welcomed me. "Meyer should have broughchye up long ago. Why did you keep Mr. Levinsky away, Meyer? Was you afraid you might have reason to be jealous?"
"That"s just it. She hit it right. I told you she was a smart girl, didn"t I, Levinsky?"
"Don"t be uneasy, Meyer. Mr. Levinsky won"t even look at an old woman like me. It"s a pretty girl he"s fishin" for. Ainchye, Mr.
Levinsky?"
She was middle-aged, with small features inconspicuously traced in a bulging ma.s.s of full-blooded flesh. This was why her mother-in-law called her "meat-ball face." She had a hoa.r.s.e voice, and altogether she might have given me the impression of being drunk had there not been something pleasing in her hoa.r.s.eness as well as in that droll face of hers. That she was American-born was clear from the way she spoke her unpolished English. Was Nodelman the henpecked husband that his mother advertised him to be? I wondered whether the frequency with which his wife used his first name could be accepted as evidence to the contrary
They had six children: a youth of nineteen named Maurice who was the image of his father and, having spent two years at college, was with him in the clothing business; a high-school boy who had his mother"s face and whose name was Sidney--an appellation very popular among our people as "swell American"; and four smaller children, the youngest being a little girl of six.
"What do you think of my stock, Levinsky?" Nodelman asked.
"Quite a lot, isn"t it? May no evil eye strike them. What do you think of the baby? Come here, Beatrice! Recite something for uncle!" The command had barely left his mouth when Beatrice sprang to her feet and burst out mumbling something in a kindergarten singsong. This lasted some minutes Then she courtesied, shook her skirts, and slipped back into her seat
"She is only six and she is already more educated than her father,"
Nodelman said. "And Sidney he"s studyin" French at high school.
Sidney, talk some French to Mr. Levinsky. He"ll understand you.
Come on, show Mr. Levinsky you ain"t going to be as ignorant as your pa."
The scene was largely a stereotyped copy of the one I had witnessed upon my first call at the Margolises"
Sidney scowled
"Come on, Sidney, be a good boy," Nodelman urged, taking him by the sleeve
"Let me alone," Sidney snarled, breaking away and striking the air a fierce backward blow with his elbow
"What do you want of him?" Mrs. Nodelman said to her husband, frigidly
My friend desisted, sheepishly
"He does seem to be afraid of his American household," I said to myself
After the meal, when we were all in the parlor again, Nodelman said to his wife, winking at me: "Poor fellow, his patience has all given out. He wants to know about the girl you"ve got for him. He has no strength any longer. Can"t you see it, Bella? Look at him!
Look at him! Another minute and he"ll faint."
"What girl? Oh, I see! Why, there is more than one!" Mrs.
Nodelman returned, confusedly. "I didn"t mean anybody in particular. There are plenty of young ladies."
"That"s the trouble. There are plenty, and no one in particular," I said
"Don"t cry," Nodelman said. "Just be a good boy and Mrs.
Nodelman will get you a peach of a young lady. Won"t you, Bella?"
"I guess so," she answered, with a smile
"Don"t you understand?" he proceeded to explain. "She first wants to know the kind of customer you are. Then she"ll know what kind of merchandise to look for. Isn"t that it, Bella?"
She made no answer
"I hope Mrs. Nodelman will find me a pretty decent sort of customer," I put in.
"You"re all right," she said, demurely. "I"m afraid it won"t be an easy job to get a young lady to suit a customer like you."
"Try your best, will you?" I said.
"I certainly will."
She was less talkative now, and certainly less at her ease than she had been before the topic was broached, which impressed me rather favorably.
Altogether she was far from the virago or "witch" her mother-in-law had described her to be. As to her att.i.tude toward her husband, I subsequently came to the conclusion that it was a blend of affection and contempt.
Nodelman was henpecked, but not badly so
I called on them three or four times more during that spring.
Somehow the question of my marriage was never mentioned on these occasions, and then Mrs. Nodelman and the children, all except Maurice, went to the seash.o.r.e for the summer
CHAPTER IV
"YOU"LL examine the merchandise, and if you don"t like it n.o.body is going to make you buy it," said Nodelman to me one day in January of the following winter. By "merchandise" he meant a Miss Kalmanovitch, the daughter of a wealthy furniture-dealer, to whom I was to be introduced at the Nodelman residence four days later. "She is a peach of a girl, beautiful as the sun, and no runt, either; a lovely girl." "Good looks aren"t everything. Beauty is skin deep, and handsome is as handsome does," I paraded my English
"Oh, she is a good girl every way: a fine housekeeper, good-natured, and educated. Gee! how educated she is! Why, she has a pile of books in her room, Bella says, a pile that high." He raised his hand above his head. "She is dead stuck on her, Bella is."
Owing to an illness in the Kalmanovitch family, the projected meeting could not take place, but Nodelman"s birthday was to be celebrated in March, so the gathering was to serve as a match-making agency as well as a social function
The great event came to pa.s.s on a Sunday evening. The prospect of facing a girl who offered herself as a candidate for becoming my wife put me all in a flutter. It took me a long time to dress and I made my appearance at the Nodelmans" rather late in the evening. Mrs. Nodelman, who met me in the hall, offered me a tempestuous welcome
"Here he is! Better late than never," she shrieked, hoa.r.s.ely, as I entered the hall at the head of the high stoop. "I was gettin"
uneasy. Honest I was." And dropping her voice: "Miss Kalmanovitch came on time. She"s a good girl. Always." And she gave me a knowing look that brought the color to my face and a coy smile into hers
Her husband appeared a minute later. After greeting me warmly he whispered into my ear: "n.o.body knows anything about it, not even the young lady. Only her mother does."
But I soon discovered that he was mistaken. My appearance produced a sensation, and the telltale glances of the women from me to a large girl with black eyes who stood at the mantelpiece not only showed plainly that they knew all about "it," but also indicated who of the young women present was Miss Kalmanovitch
The s.p.a.cious parlor was literally jammed. 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