Moses did not disclaim the implied compliment to his rigid honesty but answered:
"Where is my head? Of course thou goest half-price. But even so where is the eighteenpence to come from?"
"But it is not eighteenpence!" ejaculated Esther with a new inspiration. Necessity was sharpening her wits to extraordinary acuteness. "We need not take return tickets. We can walk back."
"But we cannot be so long away from the mother—both of us," said Moses. "She, too, is ill. And how will the children do without thee? I will go by myself."
"No, I must see Benjy!" Esther cried.
"Be not so stiff-necked, Esther! Besides, it stands in the letter that I am to come—they do not ask thee. Who knows that the great people will not be angry if I bring thee with me? I dare say Benjamin will soon be better. He cannot have been ill long."
"But, quick, then, father, quick!" cried Esther, yielding to the complex difficulties of the position. "Go at once."
"Immediately, Esther. Wait only till I have finished my prayers. I am nearly done."
"No! No!" cried Esther agonized. "Thou prayest so much—God will let thee off a little bit just for once. Thou must go at once and ride both ways, else how shall we know what has happened? I will pawn my new prize and that will give thee money enough."
"Good!" said Moses. "While thou art pledging the book I shall have time to finish davening." He hitched up his Talith and commenced to gabble off, "Happy are they who dwell in Thy house; ever shall they praise Thee, Selah," and was already saying, "And a Redeemer shall come unto Zion," by the time Esther rushed out through the door with the pledge. It was a gaudily bound volume called "Treasures of Science," and Esther knew it almost by heart, having read it twice from gilt cover to gilt cover. All the same, she would miss it sorely. The pawnbroker lived only round the corner, for like the publican he springs up wherever the conditions are favorable. He was a Christian; by a curious anomaly the Ghetto does not supply its own pawnbrokers, but sends them out to the provinces or the West End. Perhaps the business instinct dreads the solicitation of the racial.