nd laid them beside
the telephone as if to search among them.

Goldwater waved a repudiating hand.

'Be not a fool-man, Goldwater.' The poet's carneying forefinger was
laid on his nose. 'I and you are the only two people in New York who
serve the poetic drama--I by writing, you by producing.'

Goldwater still shook his head, albeit a whit appeased by the
flattery.

Kloot replied for him: 'Your manuscript shall be returned to you by
the first dustcart.'

Pinchas disregarded the youth. 'But I am willing you shall have only a
fortnight's rehearsals. I believe in you, Goldwater. I have always
said, "The only genius on the Yiddish stage is Goldwater."
Klostermann--bah! He produces not so badly, but act? My grandmother's
hen has a better stage presence. And there is Davidoff--a voice like a
frog and a walk like a spider. And these charlatans I only heard of
when I came to New York. But you, Goldwater--your fame has blown
across the Atlantic, over the Carpathians. I journeyed from Cracow
expressly to collaborate with you.'

'Then why do you spoil it all?' asked the mollified manager.

'It is my anxiety that Europe shall not be disappointed in you. Let us
talk of the cast.'

'It is so early yet.'

'"The early bird catches the worm."'

'But all our worms are caught,' grinned Kloot. 'We keep our talent
pinned on the premises.'

'I know, I know,' said Pinchas, paling. He saw Mrs. Goldwater tripping
on saucily as Ophelia.

'But we don't give all our talent to one play,' the manager reminded
him.

'No, of course not,' said Pinchas, with a breath of hope.

'We have to use all our people by turns. We divide our forces. With
myself as Hamlet you will have a cast that should satisfy any author.'

'Do I not know it?' cried Pinchas. 'Were you but to say your lines,
leaving all the others to be read by the prompter, the house would be
spellbound, like Moses when he saw the burning bush.'

'That being so,' said Goldwater, 'you couldn't expect to have my wife
in the same cast.'

'No, indeed,' said Pinchas enthusiastically. 'Two such tragic geniuses
would confuse and distract, like the sun and the moon shining
together.'

Goldwater coughed. 'But Ophelia is really a small part,' he murmured.

'It is,' Pinchas acquiesced. 'Your wife's tragic powers could only be
displayed in "Hamlet" if, like another equally celebrated actress, she
appeared as the Prince of Palestine himself.'

'Heaven forbid my wife should so lower