{"id":5509,"date":"2026-02-01T01:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5509"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:49:30","slug":"a-rose-of-the-ghetto-by-israel-zangwill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=5509","title":{"rendered":"A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Rose of the Ghetto by <a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/classic-locked-room-mysteries\">Israel Zangwill<\/a> was published in 1893. It later appears in the short story collection The King of Schnorrers.<\/p>\n<p><em>This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill<\/h2>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade no-lazyload\"><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\"><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill<\/h3>\n<p>One day it occurred to Leibel that he ought to get married. He went to Sugarman the Shadchan forthwith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the very thing for you,\u201d said the great marriage broker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs she pretty?\u201d asked Leibel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer father has a boot and shoe warehouse,\u201d replied Sugarman, enthusiastically.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen there ought to be a dowry with her,\u201d said Leibel, eagerly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly a dowry! A fine man like you!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow much do you think it would be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course it is not a large warehouse; but then you could get your boots at trade price, and your wife\u2019s, perhaps, for the cost of the leather.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen could I see her?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will arrange for you to call next Sabbath afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou won\u2019t charge me more than a sovereign?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a groschen more! Such a pious maiden! I\u2019m sure you will be happy. She has so much way-of-the-country [breeding]. And of course five per cent on the dowry?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cH\u2019m! Well, I don\u2019t mind!\u201d \u201cPerhaps they won\u2019t give a dowry,\u201d he thought with a consolatory sense of outwitting the Shadchan.<\/p>\n<p>On the Saturday Leibel went to see the damsel, and on the Sunday he went to see Sugarman the Shadchan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut your maiden squints!\u201d he cried, resentfully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn excellent thing!\u201d said Sugarman. \u201cA wife who squints can never look her husband straight in the face and overwhelm him. Who would quail before a woman with a squint?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could endure the squint,\u201d went on Leibel, dubiously, \u201cbut she also stammers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, what is better, in the event of a quarrel? The difficulty she has in talking will keep her far more silent than most wives. You had best secure her while you have the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut she halts on the left leg,\u201d cried Leibel, exasperated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGott in Himmel! Do you mean to say you do not see what an advantage it is to have a wife unable to accompany you in all your goings?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leibel lost patience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy, the girl is a hunchback!\u201d he protested, furiously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy dear Leibel,\u201d said the marriage broker, deprecatingly shrugging his shoulders and spreading out his palms, \u201cyou can\u2019t expect perfection!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless Leibel persisted in his unreasonable attitude. He accused Sugarman of wasting his time, of making a fool of him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA fool of you!\u201d echoed the Shadchan, indignantly, \u201cwhen I give you a chance of a boot and shoe manufacturer\u2019s daughter? You will make a fool of yourself if you refuse. I dare say her dowry would be enough to set you up as a master tailor. At present you are compelled to slave away as a cutter for thirty shillings a week. It is most unjust. If you only had a few machines you would be able to employ your own cutters. And they can be got so cheap nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This gave Leibel pause, and he departed without having definitely broken the negotiations. His whole week was befogged by doubt, his work became uncertain, his chalk marks lacked their usual decision, and he did not always cut his coat according to his cloth. His aberrations became so marked that pretty Rose Green, the sweater\u2019s eldest daughter, who managed a machine in the same room, divined, with all a woman\u2019s intuition, that he was in love.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is the matter?\u201d she said, in rallying Yiddish, when they were taking their lunch of bread and cheese and ginger-beer amid the clatter of machines, whose serfs had not yet knocked off work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are proposing me a match,\u201d he answered, sullenly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA match!\u201d ejaculated Rose. \u201cThou!\u201d She had worked by his side for years, and familiarity bred the second person singular. Leibel nodded his head, and put a mouthful of Dutch cheese into it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith whom?\u201d asked Rose. Somehow he felt ashamed. He gurgled the answer into the stone ginger-beer bottle, which he put to his thirsty lips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Leah Volcovitch!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeah Volcovitch!\u201d gasped Rose. \u201cLeah, the boot and shoe manufacturer\u2019s daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leibel hung his head\u2014he scarce knew why. He did not dare meet her gaze. His droop said \u201cYes.\u201d There was a long pause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd why dost thou not have her?\u201d said Rose. It was more than an inquiry; there was contempt in it, and perhaps even pique.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel did not reply. The embarrassing silence reigned again, and reigned long. Rose broke it at last.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it that thou likest me better?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel seemed to see a ball of lightning in the air; it burst, and he felt the electric current strike right through his heart. The shock threw his head up with a jerk, so that his eyes gazed into a face whose beauty and tenderness were revealed to him for the first time. The face of his old acquaintance had vanished; this was a cajoling, coquettish, smiling face, suggesting undreamed-of things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNu, yes,\u201d he replied, without perceptible pause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNu, good!\u201d she rejoined as quickly.<\/p>\n<p>And in the ecstasy of that moment of mutual understanding Leibel forgot to wonder why he had never thought of Rose before. Afterward he remembered that she had always been his social superior.<\/p>\n<p>The situation seemed too dream-like for explanation to the room just yet. Leibel lovingly passed a bottle of ginger-beer, and Rose took a sip, with a beautiful air of plighting troth, understood only of those two. When Leibel quaffed the remnant it intoxicated him. The relics of the bread and cheese were the ambrosia to this nectar. They did not dare kiss; the suddenness of it all left them bashful, and the smack of lips would have been like a cannon-peal announcing their engagement. There was a subtler sweetness in this sense of a secret, apart from the fact that neither cared to break the news to the master tailor, a stern little old man. Leibel\u2019s chalk marks continued indecisive that afternoon, which shows how correctly Rose had connected them with love.<\/p>\n<p>Before he left that night Rose said to him, \u201cArt thou sure thou wouldst not rather have Leah Volcovitch?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot for all the boots and shoes in the world,\u201d replied Leibel, vehemently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I,\u201d protested Rose, \u201cwould rather go without my own than without thee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The landing outside the workshop was so badly lighted that their lips came together in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNay, nay; thou must not yet,\u201d said Rose. \u201cThou art still courting Leah Volcovitch. For aught thou knowest, Sugarman the Shadchan may have entangled thee beyond redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot so,\u201d asserted Leibel. \u201cI have only seen the maiden once.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. But Sugarman has seen her father several times,\u201d persisted Rose. \u201cFor so misshapen a maiden his commission would be large. Thou must go to Sugarman to-night, and tell him that thou canst not find it in thy heart to go on with the match.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKiss me, and I will go,\u201d pleaded Leibel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo, and I will kiss thee,\u201d said Rose, resolutely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd when shall we tell thy father?\u201d he asked, pressing her hand, as the next best thing to her lips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs soon as thou art free from Leah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut will he consent?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe will not be glad,\u201d said Rose, frankly. \u201cBut after mother\u2019s death\u2014peace be upon her\u2014the rule passed from her hands into mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, that is well,\u201d said Leibel. He was a superficial thinker.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel found Sugarman at supper. The great Shadchan offered him a chair, but nothing else. Hospitality was associated in his mind with special occasions only, and involved lemonade and \u201cstuffed monkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was very put out\u2014almost to the point of indigestion\u2014to hear of Leibel\u2019s final determination, and plied him with reproachful inquiries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t mean to say that you give up a boot and shoe manufacturer merely because his daughter has round shoulders!\u201d he exclaimed, incredulously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is more than round shoulders\u2014it is a hump!\u201d cried Leibel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd suppose? See how much better off you will be when you get your own machines! We do not refuse to let camels carry our burdens because they have humps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, but a wife is not a camel,\u201d said Leibel, with a sage air.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd a cutter is not a master tailor,\u201d retorted Sugarman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnough, enough!\u201d cried Leibel. \u201cI tell you, I would not have her if she were a machine warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere sticks something behind,\u201d persisted Sugarman, unconvinced.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel shook his head. \u201cOnly her hump\u201d he said with a flash of humour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoses Mendelssohn had a hump,\u201d expostulated Sugarman, reproachfully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, but he was a heretic,\u201d rejoined Leibel, who was not without reading. \u201cAnd then he was a man! A man with two humps could find a wife for each. But a woman with a hump cannot expect a husband in addition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGuard your tongue from evil,\u201d quoth the Shadchan, angrily. \u201cIf everybody were to talk like you Leah Volcovitch would never be married at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leibel shrugged his shoulders, and reminded him that hunchbacked girls who stammered and squinted and halted on left legs were not usually led under the canopy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNonsense! Stuff!\u201d cried Sugarman, angrily. \u201cThat is because they do not come to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeah Volcovitch has come to you,\u201d said Leibel, \u201cbut she shall not come to me.\u201d And he rose, anxious to escape.<\/p>\n<p>Instantly Sugarman gave a sigh of resignation. \u201cBe it so! Then I shall have to look out for another, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, I don\u2019t want any,\u201d replied Leibel, quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman stopped eating. \u201cYou don\u2019t want any?\u201d he cried. \u201cBut you came to me for one?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2014I\u2014know,\u201d stammered Leibel. \u201cBut I\u2019ve\u2014I\u2019ve altered my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne needs Hillel\u2019s patience to deal with you!\u201d cried Sugarman. \u201cBut I shall charge you, all the same, for my trouble. You cannot cancel an order like this in the middle! No, no! You can play fast and loose with Leah Volcovitch, but you shall not make a fool of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if I don\u2019t want one?\u201d said Leibel, sullenly.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman gazed at him with a cunning look of suspicion. \u201cDidn\u2019t I say there was something sticking behind?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leibel felt guilty. \u201cBut whom have you got in your eye?\u201d he inquired, desperately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps you may have some one in yours!\u201d naively answered Sugarman.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel gave a hypocritic long-drawn \u201cU-m-m-m! I wonder if Rose Green\u2014where I work\u2014\u201d he said, and stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fear not,\u201d said Sugarman. \u201cShe is on my list. Her father gave her to me some months ago, but he is hard to please. Even the maiden herself is not easy, being pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps she has waited for some one,\u201d suggested Leibel.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman\u2019s keen ear caught the note of complacent triumph.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have been asking her yourself!\u201d he exclaimed, in horror-stricken accents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if I have?\u201d said Leibel, defiantly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have cheated me! And so has Eliphaz Green\u2014I always knew he was tricky! You have both defrauded me!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not mean to,\u201d said Leibel, mildly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou did mean to. You had no business to take the matter out of my hands. What right had you to propose to Rose Green?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not,\u201d cried Leibel, excitedly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen you asked her father!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo; I have not asked her father yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen how do you know she will have you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2014I know,\u201d stammered Leibel, feeling himself somehow a liar as well as a thief. His brain was in a whirl; he could not remember how the thing had come about. Certainly he had not proposed; nor could he say that she had.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know she will have you,\u201d repeated Sugarman, reflectively. \u201cAnd does she know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. In fact,\u201d he blurted out, \u201cwe arranged it together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, you both know. And does her father know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, then I must get his consent,\u201d said Sugarman, decisively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2014I thought of speaking to him myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYourself!\u201d echoed Sugarman, in horror. \u201cAre you unsound in the head? Why, that would be worse than the mistake you have already made!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat mistake?\u201d asked Leibel, firing up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mistake of asking the maiden herself. When you quarrel with her after your marriage she will always throw it in your teeth that you wished to marry her. Moreover, if you tell a maiden you love her, her father will think you ought to marry her as she stands. Still, what is done is done.\u201d And he sighed regretfully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd what more do I want? I love her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou piece of clay!\u201d cried Sugarman, contemptuously. \u201cLove will not turn machines, much less buy them. You must have a dowry. Her father has a big stocking; he can well afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leibel\u2019s eyes lit up. There was really no reason why he should not have bread and cheese with his kisses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, if you went to her father,\u201d pursued the Shadchan, \u201cthe odds are that he would not even give you his daughter\u2014to say nothing of the dowry. After all, it is a cheek of you to aspire so high. As you told me from the first, you haven\u2019t saved a penny. Even my commission you won\u2019t be able to pay till you get the dowry. But if I go I do not despair of getting a substantial sum\u2014to say nothing of the daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I think you had better go,\u201d said Leibel, eagerly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if I do this thing for you I shall want a pound more,\u201d rejoined Sugarman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA pound more!\u201d echoed Leibel, in dismay. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Rose Green\u2019s hump is of gold,\u201d replied Sugarman, oracularly. \u201cAlso, she is fair to see, and many men desire her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you have always your five per cent, on the dowry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be less than Volcovitch\u2019s,\u201d explained Sugarman. \u201cYou see, Green has other and less beautiful daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, but then it settles itself more easily. Say five shillings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEliphaz Green is a hard man,\u201d said the Shadchan instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTen shillings is the most I will give!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwelve and sixpence is the least I will take. Eliphaz Green haggles so terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They split the difference, and so eleven and threepence represented the predominance of Eliphaz Green\u2019s stinginess over Volcovitch\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The very next day Sugarman invaded the Green workroom. Rose bent over her seams, her heart fluttering. Leibel had duly apprised her of the roundabout manner in which she would have to be won, and she had acquiesced in the comedy. At the least it would save her the trouble of father-taming.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman\u2019s entry was brusque and breathless. He was overwhelmed with joyous emotion. His blue bandana trailed agitatedly from his coat-tail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt last!\u201d he cried, addressing the little white-haired master tailor; \u201cI have the very man for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes?\u201d grunted Eliphaz, unimpressed. The monosyllable was packed with emotion. It said, \u201cHave you really the face to come to me again with an ideal man?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has all the qualities that you desire,\u201d began the Shadchan, in a tone that repudiated the implications of the monosyllable. \u201cHe is young, strong, God-fearing\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHas he any money?\u201d grumpily interrupted Eliphaz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe will have money,\u201d replied Sugarman, unhesitatingly, \u201cwhen he marries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh!\u201d The father\u2019s voice relaxed, and his foot lay limp on the treadle. He worked one of his machines himself, and paid himself the wages so as to enjoy the profit. \u201cHow much will he have?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he will have fifty pounds; and the least you can do is to let him have fifty pounds,\u201d replied Sugarman, with the same happy ambiguity.<\/p>\n<p>Eliphaz shook his head on principle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, you will,\u201d said Sugarman, \u201cwhen you learn how fine a man he is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The flush of confusion and trepidation already on Leibel\u2019s countenance became a rosy glow of modesty, for he could not help overhearing what was being said, owing to the lull of the master tailor\u2019s machine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTell me, then,\u201d rejoined Eliphaz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTell me, first, if you will give fifty to a young, healthy, hard-working, God-fearing man, whose idea it is to start as a master tailor on his own account? And you know how profitable that is!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo a man like that,\u201d said Eliphaz, in a burst of enthusiasm, \u201cI would give as much as twenty-seven pounds ten!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman groaned inwardly, but Leibel\u2019s heart leaped with joy. To get four months\u2019 wages at a stroke! With twenty-seven pounds ten he could certainly procure several machines, especially on the instalment system. Out of the corners of his eyes he shot a glance at Rose, who was beyond earshot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless you can promise thirty it is waste of time mentioning his name,\u201d said Sugarman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, well\u2014who is he?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman bent down, lowering his voice into the father\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat! Leibel!\u201d cried Eliphaz, outraged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSh!\u201d said Sugarman, \u201cor he will overhear your delight, and ask more. He has his nose high enough, as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cB\u2014b\u2014b\u2014ut,\u201d sputtered the bewildered parent, \u201cI know Leibel myself. I see him every day. I don\u2019t want a Shadchan to find me a man I know\u2014a mere hand in my own workshop!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour talk has neither face nor figure,\u201d answered Sugarman, sternly. \u201cIt is just the people one sees every day that one knows least. I warrant that if I had not put it into your head you would never have dreamt of Leibel as a son-in-law. Come now, confess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eliphaz grunted vaguely, and the Shadchan went on triumphantly: \u201cI thought as much. And yet where could you find a better man to keep your daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe ought to be content with her alone,\u201d grumbled her father.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman saw the signs of weakening, and dashed in, full strength: \u201cIt\u2019s a question whether he will have her at all. I have not been to him about her yet. I awaited your approval of the idea.\u201d Leibel admired the verbal accuracy of these statements, which he had just caught.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I didn\u2019t know he would be having money,\u201d murmured Eliphaz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course you didn\u2019t know. That\u2019s what the Shadchan is for\u2014to point out the things that are under your nose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut where will he be getting this money from?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom you,\u201d said Sugarman, frankly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom whom else? Are you not his employer? It has been put by for his marriage day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has saved it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has not spent it,\u201d said Sugarman, impatiently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut do you mean to say he has saved fifty pounds?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he could manage to save fifty pounds out of your wages he would be indeed a treasure,\u201d said Sugarman. \u201cPerhaps it might be thirty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you said fifty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, you came down to thirty,\u201d retorted the Shadchan. \u201cYou cannot expect him to have more than your daughter brings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never said thirty,\u201d Eliphaz reminded him. \u201cTwenty-seven ten was my last bid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery well; that will do as a basis of negotiations,\u201d said Sugarman, resignedly. \u201cI will call upon him this evening. If I were to go over and speak to him now, he would perceive you were anxious, and raise his terms, and that will never do. Of course you will not mind allowing me a pound more for finding you so economical a son-in-law?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a penny more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need not fear,\u201d said Sugarman, resentfully. \u201cIt is not likely I shall be able to persuade him to take so economical a father-in-law. So you will be none the worse for promising.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe it so,\u201d said Eliphaz, with a gesture of weariness, and he started his machine again.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwenty-seven pounds ten, remember,\u201d said Sugarman, above the whir.<\/p>\n<p>Eliphaz nodded his head, whirring his wheel-work louder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd paid before the wedding, mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The machine took no notice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore the wedding, mind,\u201d repeated Sugarman. \u201cBefore we go under the canopy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo now, go now!\u201d grunted Eliphaz, with a gesture of impatience. \u201cIt shall all be well.\u201d And the white-haired head bowed immovably over its work.<\/p>\n<p>In the evening Rose extracted from her father the motive of Sugarman\u2019s visit, and confessed that the idea was to her liking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut dost thou think he will have me, little father?\u201d she asked, with cajoling eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny one would have my Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAh, but Leibel is different. So many years he has sat at my side and said nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had his work to think of. He is a good, saving youth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this very moment Sugarman is trying to persuade him\u2014not so? I suppose he will want much money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe easy, my child.\u201d And he passed his discoloured hand over her hair.<\/p>\n<p>Sugarman turned up the next day, and reported that Leibel was unobtainable under thirty pounds, and Eliphaz, weary of the contest, called over Leibel, till that moment carefully absorbed in his scientific chalk marks, and mentioned the thing to him for the first time. \u201cI am not a man to bargain,\u201d Eliphaz said, and so he gave the young man his tawny hand, and a bottle of rum sprang from somewhere, and work was suspended for five minutes, and the \u201chands\u201d all drank amid surprised excitement. Sugarman\u2019s visits had prepared them to congratulate Rose; but Leibel was a shock.<\/p>\n<p>The formal engagement was marked by even greater junketing, and at last the marriage day came. Leibel was resplendent in a diagonal frockcoat, cut by his own hand; and Rose stepped from the cab a medley of flowers, fairness, and white silk, and behind her came two bridesmaids,\u2014her sisters,\u2014a trio that glorified the spectator-strewn pavement outside the synagogue. Eliphaz looked almost tall in his shiny high hat and frilled shirt-front. Sugarman arrived on foot, carrying red-socked little Ebenezer tucked under his arm.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel and Rose were not the only couple to be disposed of, for it was the thirty-third day of the Omer\u2014a day fruitful in marriages.<\/p>\n<p>But at last their turn came. They did not, however, come in their turn, and their special friends among the audience wondered why they had lost their precedence. After several later marriages had taken place a whisper began to circulate. The rumour of a hitch gained ground steadily, and the sensation was proportionate. And, indeed, the rose was not to be picked without a touch of the thorn.<\/p>\n<p>Gradually the facts leaked out, and a buzz of talk and comment ran through the waiting synagogue. Eliphaz had not paid up!<\/p>\n<p>At first he declared he would put down the money immediately after the ceremony. But the wary Sugarman, schooled by experience, demanded its instant delivery on behalf of his other client. Hard pressed, Eliphaz produced ten sovereigns from his trousers-pocket, and tendered them on account. These Sugarman disdainfully refused, and the negotiations were suspended. The bridegroom\u2019s party was encamped in one room, the bride\u2019s in another, and after a painful delay Eliphaz sent an emissary to say that half the amount should be forthcoming, the extra five pounds in a bright new Bank of England note. Leibel, instructed and encouraged by Sugarman, stood firm.<\/p>\n<p>And then arose a hubbub of voices, a chaos of suggestions; friends rushed to and fro between the camps, some emerging from their seats in the synagogue to add to the confusion. But Eliphaz had taken his stand upon a rock\u2014he had no more ready money. To-morrow, the next day, he would have some. And Leibel, pale and dogged, clutched tighter at those machines that were slipping away momently from him. He had not yet seen his bride that morning, and so her face was shadowy compared with the tangibility of those machines. Most of the other maidens were married women by now, and the situation was growing desperate. From the female camp came terrible rumours of bridesmaids in hysterics, and a bride that tore her wreath in a passion of shame and humiliation. Eliphaz sent word that he would give an I O U for the balance, but that he really could not muster any more current coin. Sugarman instructed the ambassador to suggest that Eliphaz should raise the money among his friends.<\/p>\n<p>And the short spring day slipped away. In vain the minister, apprised of the block, lengthened out the formulae for the other pairs, and blessed them with more reposeful unction. It was impossible to stave off the Leibel-Green item indefinitely, and at last Rose remained the only orange-wreathed spinster in the synagogue. And then there was a hush of solemn suspense, that swelled gradually into a steady rumble of babbling tongues, as minute succeeded minute and the final bridal party still failed to appear. The latest bulletin pictured the bride in a dead faint. The afternoon was waning fast. The minister left his post near the canopy, under which so many lives had been united, and came to add his white tie to the forces for compromise. But he fared no better than the others. Incensed at the obstinacy of the antagonists, he declared he would close the synagogue. He gave the couple ten minutes to marry in or quit. Then chaos came, and pandemonium\u2014a frantic babel of suggestion and exhortation from the crowd. When five minutes had passed a legate from Eliphaz announced that his side had scraped together twenty pounds, and that this was their final bid.<\/p>\n<p>Leibel wavered; the long day\u2019s combat had told upon him; the reports of the bride\u2019s distress had weakened him. Even Sugarman had lost his cocksureness of victory. A few minutes more and both commissions might slip through his fingers. Once the parties left the synagogue, it would not be easy to drive them there another day. But he cheered on his man still: one could always surrender at the tenth minute.<\/p>\n<p>At the eighth the buzz of tongues faltered suddenly, to be transposed into a new key, so to speak. Through the gesticulating assembly swept that murmur of expectation which crowds know when the procession is coming at last. By some mysterious magnetism all were aware that the BRIDE herself\u2014the poor hysteric bride\u2014had left the paternal camp, was coming in person to plead with her mercenary lover.<\/p>\n<p>And as the glory of her and the flowers and the white draperies loomed upon Leibel\u2019s vision his heart melted in worship, and he knew his citadel would crumble in ruins at her first glance, at her first touch. Was it fair fighting? As his troubled vision cleared, and as she came nigh unto him, he saw to his amazement that she was speckless and composed\u2014no trace of tears dimmed the fairness of her face, there was no disarray in her bridal wreath.<\/p>\n<p>The clock showed the ninth minute.<\/p>\n<p>She put her hand appeallingly on his arm, while a heavenly light came into her face\u2014the expression of a Joan of Arc animating her country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not give in, Leibel!\u201d she said. \u201cDo not have me! Do not let them persuade thee! By my life, thou must not! Go home!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So at the eleventh minute the vanquished Eliphaz produced the balance, and they all lived happily ever afterward.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Israel Zangwill Books to Read<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3NgN5v1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3NEgvDg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4sxmtWR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/4qnucoM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><br \/>\nClick on the image to Buy on Amazon<\/p>\n<p> If you enjoyed A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill, check out T<a href=\"https:\/\/quizlit.org\/the-model-millionaire-by-oscar-wilde\">he Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Narrated by Lucy Perry, courtesy of Librivox<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill was published in 1893. It later appears in the short story collection The King of Schnorrers. This post may contain affiliate links that earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. A Rose of the Ghetto by Israel Zangwill A Rose of the Ghetto by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}