The Uttermost Farthing - A Savant's Vendetta by R. Austin (Richard Austin) Freeman
page 99 of 185 (53%)
page 99 of 185 (53%)
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"One evening, as I was returning homeward through the district that lies at the rear of Middlesex Street, my attention was arrested by a large card tacked on the door of a closed shop. A dingy barber's pole gave a clue to the nature of the industry formerly carried on, and the card--which was written upon in fair and even scholarly Hebrew characters--supplied particulars. I had stopped to read the inscription, faintly amused at the incongruity between the recondite Oriental lettering and the matter-of-fact references to 'eligible premises' and 'fixtures and goodwill,' when the door opened and two men came out. One was a typical English Jew, smart, chubby and prosperous; the other was evidently a foreigner. "Both men stood aside to enable me to continue my reading, and, as I was about to turn away, the smarter of the two addressed me. "'Good chanth here, misther. Nithe little bithness going for nothing. No charge for goodwill or fixtures. Ready-made bithneth and nothing to pay but rent.' "'Ja!' the other man broke in, 'dat shop is a leedle goldmine; und you buys 'im for noding.' "It was an absurd situation. I was beginning smilingly to shake my head when the Jew resumed eagerly: "I tell you, misther, itth a chanth in a million. A firth clath bithneth and not a brown to pay for the goodwill. Come in and have a look round,' he added persuasively. |
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