Artists -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Jews -- England -- London -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
Declaring that they were better for the sea air, and warmly enjoining
Mrs. Finch to visit then if ever she should come to London, the party
left Margate with shells and toffee and painted china for their
friends and relations, conspicuous among their luggage being the
buckets and spades which had never been used.
As Issy and his mother reached their front-door, he saw Rosa at the
corner of the street, and bolted after her, leaving Golda to enter the
house and give an account of her doings. Mendel, for once in a way,
was at home. He was at work on a picture for a prize competition at
the Detmold, as also were Mitchell and Weldon, so that they were
living quietly for the time being. Golda gave a glowing description of
the beauties of Margate and of Mrs. Finch and her jewellery. She began
to talk of Hetty, but for some reason unknown to herself, with a
glance at Mendel she stopped, and went off into a vague, dreamy
rhapsody concerning Margate streets.
"The streets are so clean, so nice, and the air is so strong, and the
sky is so clear, with the clouds tumbling across it, little clouds
like cotton-wool and grey clouds like blankets, almost as it was in
Austria, and I was so happy my heart was full of flowers, almost as it
was in Austria."
"What's the good of talking of Austria?" growled Jacob. "There you had
a corner. Here you have a whole house."
"But I was happy there."
Issy came in on that and announced that he was going to be married to
Rosa. There was half a house vacant in the next street, and he
proposed to take it.
"You shall not," said Jacob. "I will not have that slut in the house.
What sort of children will she give you? Squat-browed and bow-legged
they will be. How will she look after them? A woman that cannot
contain her love for her man will have none for the children. She is a
dirty girl, I tell you, and so is her mother and her father's mother,
and her father's father's mother."
"I don't know who we are, to hold up our heads so high. You are my
father, but in some things I cannot obey you. The business is mine
. . ."
"It is not. It is mine!" said Jacob. "It is in your name, but it is
mine. It is in your name, but your name is my name, and you shall not
give it to a woman like that, who goes smelling about street corners
like a dog. Her father has no money, and he never goes to the
synagogue."
"I am not marrying her father. I shall go out of the business, then,
and I shall start for myself. Rosa will kill herself if I do not marry
her, and I must do it."
"It is true," said Golda quietly. "I think she will kill herself."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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