"I don't know, mother," replied the twinkling-eyed Pole obediently.
"Three pounds, perhaps, if you got it cheap."
Samuel and David duly appealed to, reduced the amount to two pounds five and two pounds respectively. Then, having got everybody's attention fixed upon her, she exclaimed:
"Thirty shillings!"
She could not resist nibbling off the five shillings. Everybody drew a long breath.
"Tu! Tu!" they ejaculated in chorus. "What a Metsiah!"
"Sam," said Ephraim immediately afterwards, "You turned up the ace."
Milly and Leah went back into the kitchen.
It was rather too quick a relapse into the common things of life and made Malka suspect the admiration was but superficial.
She turned, with a spice of ill-humor, and saw Esther still standing timidly behind her. Her face flushed for she knew the child had overheard her in a lie.
"What art thou waiting about for?" she said roughly in Yiddish. "Na! there's a peppermint."