THE HOPE EXTINCT.

The strike came to an end soon after.  To the delight of Melchitsedek Pinchas, Gideon, M.P., intervened at the eleventh hour, unceremoniously elbowing Simon Wolf out of his central position.  A compromise was arranged and jubilance and tranquillity reigned for some months, till the corruptions of competitive human nature brought back the old state of things—­for employers have quite a diplomatic reverence for treaties and the brotherly love of employees breaks down under the strain of supporting families.  Rather to his own surprise Moses Ansell found himself in work at least three days a week, the other three being spent in hanging round the workshop waiting for it.  It is an uncertain trade, is the manufacture of slops, which was all Moses was fitted for, but if you are not at hand you may miss the “work” when it does come.

It never rains but it pours, and so more luck came to the garret of No. 1 Royal Street.  Esther won five pounds at school.  It was the Henry Goldsmith prize, a new annual prize for general knowledge, instituted by a lady named Mrs. Henry Goldsmith who had just joined the committee, and the semi-divine person herself—­a surpassingly beautiful radiant being, like a princess in a fairy tale—­personally congratulated her upon her success.  The money was not available for a year, but the neighbors hastened to congratulate the family on its rise to wealth.  Even Levi Jacob’s visits became more frequent, though this could scarcely be ascribed to mercenary motives.

The Belcovitches recognized their improved status so far as to send to borrow some salt:  for the colony of No. 1 Royal Street carried on an extensive system of mutual accommodation, coals, potatoes, chunks of bread, saucepans, needles, wood-choppers, all passing daily to and fro.  Even garments and jewelry were lent on great occasions, and when that dear old soul Mrs. Simons went to a wedding she was decked out in contributions from a dozen wardrobes.  The Ansells themselves were too proud to borrow though they were not above lending.

It was early morning and Moses in his big phylacteries was droning his orisons.  His mother had had an attack of spasms and so he was praying at home to be at hand in case of need.  Everybody was up, and Moses was superintending the household even while he was gabbling psalms.  He never minded breaking off his intercourse with Heaven to discuss domestic affairs, for he was on free and easy terms with the powers that be, and there was scarce a prayer in the liturgy which he would not interrupt to reprimand Solomon for lack of absorption in the same.  The exception was the Amidah or eighteen Blessings, so-called because there are twenty-two.  This section must be said standing and inaudibly and when Moses was engaged upon it, a message from an earthly monarch would have extorted no reply from him.  There were other sacred silences which Moses would not break save of dire necessity and then only by talking Hebrew; but the Amidah was the silence of silences.  This was why the utterly unprecedented arrival of a telegraph boy did not move him.  Not even Esther’s cry of alarm when she opened the telegram had any visible effect upon him, though in reality he whispered off his prayer at a record-beating rate and duly danced three times on his toes with spasmodic celerity at the finale.