With every bargain that he made for Ehrenthal he combined one for
himself, and soon won a reputation that excited the envy of gray-bearded
fripperers. He did not confine his activity to any one department
either, but became a horse-dealer's agent, the _employщ_ of secret
money-lenders--nay, a money-lender himself. Then he had the faculty of
never getting tired, was all day on his feet, would run any length for a
few pence, and never resented a harsh word. He allowed himself no other
recreation than that of counting over his different transactions and
their probable results. He lived upon next to nothing; a slice or two of
bread abducted from Ehrenthal's kitchen would serve for his supper. Only
once during the first year of his town life did he allow himself a glass
of thin small beer, and that after a very profitable bargain.
He was always remarkably neat in his attire, considering it essential
that a man of business should bear the aspect of a gentleman. In short,
at the end of twelve months his six ducats had increased thirty fold.
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He soon became indispensable in Mr. Ehrenthal's household. Nothing
escaped him. He never forgot a face, and was as familiar with the daily
state of the funds as any broker on 'Change. He still occupied the post
of errand-boy, blacked Bernhard's boots, and dined in the kitchen; but
it was plain that a stool in the office, which Ehrenthal kept for form's
sake, would ultimately be his. This was the goal of his ambition--the
paradise of his hopes. He soon saw that he only wanted three things to
attain to it--a more grammatical knowledge of German, finer caligraphy,
and an initiation into the mysteries of book-keeping, of which he as yet
knew nothing.
Meanwhile, he had become a distinguished man in his caravanserai, one
whom even LЎbel Pinkus himself treated with respect. Veitel owed this to
his own sharp-wittedness. Ever since his first arrival, the hollow sound
of the wooden partition had a good deal excited him, and he had often
vainly sought to explore the mystery. At last, one Saturday evening, he
pretended to be ill, and remained at home, when his host and the rest of
the household had gone to the synagogue.
Having had the good fortune to widen a chink in the partition, he beheld
what delighted him in the extreme. A large dirty room, quite full of
chests, coffers, and a chaos of desirable articles--old clothes, beds,
piles of linen, stuffs, hangings, hardware-goods, etc. Aladdin at his
first entrance into the magician's cave was hardly so enraptured as
Itzig by his discovery, which he carefully kept to himself. Sometimes at
night he heard a stir in the mysterious room; nay, once whispers reached
him, some of them in the deep voice of Pinkus himself. One evening, too,
coming home late, he saw boxes and bundles in a little carriage before
the next house, all modestly covered up with white linen; and that very
night two silent guests disappeared, and came back no more; from all of
which Veitel concluded that his host was a commission agent, who had his
reasons for carrying on business by night rather than by day.
It was as clear as possible. These goods were taken eastward, smuggled
over the border, and spread all over Russia.
Veitel used his discovery judiciously, only giving such hints of it to
Pinkus as to insure his most respectful behavior.
On one eventful day Veitel returned in thoughtful mood to his lodgings,
and sat in the public room. He was pondering how best to get hold of
some scribe who would initiate him into the mysteries of grammar and
book-keeping for the smallest possible fee; nay, perhaps for a certain
old black coat, which, owing to the peculiarity of its cut, he had never
yet been able to dispose of. Happening to look up in the midst of his
reflections, his eye fell on a stranger who held a pen in his hand, and
conversed with a tradesman. It was plain that this man was no Jew. He
was little and fat. He had a red turned-up nose, bushy gray hair, and he
wore an old pair of spectacles, which had great difficulty in keeping on
the nose aforesaid. Veitel remarked that he had on an unusually bad
coat, and took snuff. It was plain that this man was a writer of some
kind; so, as soon as he had seen him hand over a paper to the tradesman,
and receive a small piece of money, Veitel approached, and began:
"I wished, sir, to ask you if you happened to know any one who could
give lessons in writing and book-keeping to a man of my acquaintance?"
"And this man of your acquaintance is yourself?" said the little man.
"Why should I make a secret of it?" said Veitel. "Yes, it is I; but I am
only a beginner, and able to give but little."
"He who gives little receives little, my dear fellow," said the elderly
scribe, taking a pinch of snuff. "What is your name, and with whom are
you placed?"
"My name is Veitel Itzig, and I am in Hirsch Ehrenthal's office."
The stranger grew attentive. "Ehrenthal," he said, "is a rich man, and a
wise. I have had dealings with him in my time; he has a very fair
knowledge of law. What fee are you willing to pay, provided a master
could be found?"
"I do not know what should be given," said Veitel.
"Then I will tell you," said he of the spectacles. "I might or might not
give you instructions myself; but first I must know more about you. If I
were to do so, in consideration of your being but poor, and a beginner,
as you say, and also of having myself a little spare time on hand, I
should only ask fifty dollars."
"Fifty dollars!" cried Veitel, in horror, sinking down on a stool, and
repeating mechanically, "fifty dollars!"
"If you think that too much," said he of the spectacles, sharply, "know
that I am not going to deal with a greenhorn; secondly, that I never
gave my assistance for so little before; and, thirdly, that I should
never think of teasing myself with you if I had not a fancy to spend a
few weeks here."
"Fifty dollars!" cried Itzig; "why, I had thought it would not cost more
than three or four, and a waistcoat and a pair of boots, and"--for
Veitel saw that a storm was coming, and that the hat on the table was
much dilapidated--"a hat almost as good as new."
"Go, you fool!" said the old man, "and look out for a parish
schoolmaster."
"Then," said Itzig, "you are not a writing-master?"
"No, you great donkey," muttered the stranger; then, in a soliloquy,
"Who could have supposed that Ehrenthal would keep such a booby as this?
He takes me for a writing-master!"
"Who are you, then?"
"One with whom you have nothing to do," was the curt reply, and the
little man rose and betook himself to the loft, while Veitel went off to
ask Pinkus, as unconcernedly as he could, the name and calling of the
new guest.
"Don't you know him?" said Pinkus, with an ironical smile; "take care
you don't know him to your cost. Ask him his name; he knows it better
than I do."
"If you will put no confidence in me, I will in you," said Veitel, and
told him the whole conversation.
"So he would have given you instruction?" said Pinkus, shaking his head
in amazement; "fifty dollars is a large sum; but many a man would give a
hundred times as much to know what he does. Not that I care what you
learn, or from whom."
Veitel went to his lair in greater perplexity than ever. Soon came
Pinkus with a slight supper for the stranger, to whom he manifested a
remarkable degree of sociability.
He now called him out on the balcony, and after a short talk in the
dark, of which Veitel guessed himself the subject, re-entered the room,
saying,
"This gentleman wishes to spend a few weeks here in private; therefore,
even if questioned, you will not mention it."
"I don't even know who the gentleman is," said Veitel; "how could I tell
any one that he is living here?"
"You may trust this young man," observed Pinkus to the stranger, and
then wished the two good-night.
The man in spectacles sat down to his supper, every now and then casting
such a glance at Veitel as an old raven might do at an unfledged
chicken, who had innocently ventured within his reach.
Meanwhile, the thought darted across Itzig's mind that this mysterious
person might be one of the chosen few--a possessor of the infallible
receipt by which a poor man could become rich. Veitel knew now that
there was no magic in this, that the receipt consisted in being more
cunning than the rest of the world, and that this cunning was not
without its serious consequences to its possessor; nay, it seemed to him
as though to acquire it were to make a compact with Satan himself. His
hand trembled, his pale face glowed, but his desire for more certain
knowledge on the subject prevailed; and he told the stranger that,
having heard that there was an art of always buying and selling to the
best advantage, and so of making a fortune, he wished to ask whether it
was that art that he (the stranger) could impart if he chose.
