V
The Sabbath came round again, but, alas! it brought no balm to the congregation; rather, was it a day of unrest. The plate-glass window still flashed in iniquitous effrontery; still the ungodly proprietor allured the stream of custom.
'He does not even refuse to take money,' Solomon Barzinsky exclaimed to Peleg the pawnbroker, as they passed the blasphemous window on their way from the Friday-evening service.
'Why, what would be the good of keeping open if you didn't take money?' naïvely inquired Peleg.
'Behemah (animal)!' replied Solomon impatiently. 'Don't you know it's forbidden to touch money on the Sabbath?'
'Of course, I know that. But if you open your shop——!'
'All the same, you might compromise. You might give the customers the things they need, as it is written, "Open thy hand to the needy!" but they could pay on Saturday night.'
'And if they didn't pay? If they drank their money away?' said the pawnbroker.
'True, but why couldn't they pay in advance?'
'How in advance?'