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‘If they had only taken my advice earlier,’ said Solomon Barzinsky to his wife, as he rolled his forkful of beef in the chutney.

‘You can write to your father, Deborah,’ said Lazarus Levy, ‘that we no longer need the superior reach-me-downs.’

On the Wednesday strange new rumours began to circulate, and those who hastened to confirm them stood dumbfounded before great posters on all the shutters:

CLOSED FOR RE-STOCKING

THE OLD-FASHIONED STOCK OF THIS BUSINESS
HAVING BEEN SOLD OFF TO THE TRADE,

SIMEON SAMUELS

IS TAKING THE OPPORTUNITY
TO LAY IN THE BEST AND MOST UP-TO-DATE
LONDON AND CONTINENTAL GOODS
FOR HIS CUSTOMERS.
BARGAINS AND NOVELTIES IN EVERY DEPARTMENT.

RE-OPEN SATURDAY NEXT

XVIII

A hurried emergency meeting of the Executive Sub-Committee was called.

‘He has swindled us,’ said Solomon Barzinsky. ‘This paper signed by him merely undertakes to shut up his shop. And he will plead he meant for a day or two.’

‘And he agreed to leave the town,’ wailed Peleg, ‘but he meant to buy goods.’

‘Well, we can have the law of him,’ said Mendel. ‘We paid him compensation for disturbance.’

‘And can’t he claim he was disturbed?’ shrieked Barzinsky. ‘His whole stock turned upside down!’

‘Let him claim!’ said Mendel. ‘There is such a thing as obtaining money under false pretences.’

‘And such a thing as becoming the laughing-stock of the heathen,’ said Peleg. ‘We must grin and bear it ourselves.’

‘It’s all very well for you to grin,’ said Solomon tartly. ‘We’ve got to bear it. You didn’t take over any of his old rubbish.’

‘Didn’t I, indeed? What about the barometer?’

‘Confound your barometer!’ cried Ephraim Mendel. ‘I’ll have the law of him; I’ve made up my mind.’

‘Well, you’ll have to bear the cost, then,’ said Peleg. ‘It’s none of my business.’

‘Yes, it is,’ shouted Mendel. ‘As a member of the Sub-Committee you can’t dissociate yourselves from us.’

‘A nice idea that–I’m to be dragged into your law-suits!’

‘Hush, leave off these squabbles!’ said Solomon Barzinsky. ‘The law is slow, and not even sure. The time has come for desperate measures. We must root out the plague-spot with our own hands.’

‘Hear, hear,’ said the rest of the Sub-Committee.

XIX

On the succeeding Sabbath Simeon Samuels was not the only figure in the synagogue absorbed in devotion. Solomon Barzinsky, Ephraim Mendel, and Peleg the pawnbroker were all rapt in equal piety, while the rest of the congregation was shaken with dreadful gossip about them. Their shops were open, too, it would seem.

Immediately after the service the Parnass arrested Solomon Barzinsky’s exit, and asked him if the rumour were true.

‘Perfectly true,’ replied Solomon placidly. ‘The Executive Sub-Committee passed the resolution to—-‘

‘To break the Sabbath!’ interrupted the Parnass.

‘We had already sacrificed our money; there was nothing left but to sacrifice our deepest feelings—-‘

‘But what for?’

‘Why, to destroy his advantage, of course. Five-sixths of his Sabbath profits depend on the marine-dealers closing, and when he sees he’s breaking the Sabbath in vain—-‘

‘Rubbish! You are asked to stop a congregational infection, and you—-‘

‘Vaccinate ourselves with the same stuff, to make sure the attack shall be light.’

‘It’s a hair of the dog that bit us,’ said Mendel, who, with Peleg, had lingered to back up Barzinsky.

‘Of the mad dog!’ exclaimed the Parnass. ‘And you’re all raging mad.’

‘It’s the only sane way,’ urged Peleg. ‘When he sees his rivals open—-‘

‘You!’ The President turned on him. ‘You are not even a marine-dealer. Why are you open?’

‘How could I dissociate myself from the rest of the Sub-Committee?’ inquired Peleg with righteous indignation.

‘You are a set of sinners in Israel!’ cried the Parnass, forgetting even to take snuff. ‘This will split up the congregation.’

‘The congregation through its Council gave the Committee full power to deal with the matter,’ said Barzinsky with dignity.

‘But then the other marine-dealers will open as well as the Committee!’

‘I trust not,’ replied Barzinsky fervently. ‘Two of us are enough to cut down his takings.’

‘But the whole lot of you would be still more efficacious. Oh, this is the destruction of our congregation, the death of our religion!’