ng to get married at all."

"Oh, yes, you are, Fatkin," Seiden replied. "You are going to get
married to Miss Bessie Saphir at New Riga Hall, on Allen Street,
to-night, six o'clock sharp; otherwise you wouldn't go to work as
foreman at all."

Hillel rose from his chair and then sat down again.

"Do you mean to told me I must got to marry Miss Bessie Saphir before I
can go to work as foreman?" he demanded.

"You got it right, Fatkin," Seiden said.

"Then I wouldn't do no such thing," Fatkin retorted and made for the
door.

"Hold on!" Seiden shouted, seizing Fatkin by the arm. "Don't be a fool,
Fatkin. What are you throwing away a hundred dollars cash for?"

"Me throw away a hundred dollars cash?" Fatkin blurted out.

"Sure," Seiden answered. "If you would marry Miss Bessie Saphir you
would not only get by me a job as foreman, but also I am willing to
give you a hundred dollars cash."

Fatkin returned to the office and again sat down opposite his employer.

"Say, lookyhere, Mr. Seiden," he said, "I want to tell you something.
You are springing on me suddenly a proposition which it is something
you could really say is remarkable. Ain't it?"

Seiden nodded.

"Miss Bessie Saphir, which she is anyhow--her own best friend would got
to admit it--homely like anything, Mr. Seiden," Fatkin continued, "is
going to marry Sternsilver; and just because Sternsilver runs away, I
should jump in and marry her like I would be nobody!"

Seiden nodded again.

"Another thing, Mr. Seiden," Hillel went on. "What is a hundred dollars?
My _Grossvater_, _olav hasholam_--which he was a very learned man, for
years a rabbi in Telshi----"

"Sure, I know, Fatkin," Seiden interrupted. "You told me that before."

"--for years a rabbi in Telshi," Hillel repeated, not deigning to
notice the interruption save by a malevolent glare, "used to say: 'Soon
married, quick divorced.' Why should I bring _tzuris_ on myself by
doing this thing, Mr. Seiden?"

Seiden treated the question as rhetorical and made no reply.

"Also I got in bank nearly three hundred dollars, Mr. Seiden," he
concluded; "and even if I was a feller which wouldn't be from such fine
family in the old country, understand me, three hundred dollars is
three hundred dollars, Mr. Seiden, and that's all there is to it."

Seiden pondered deeply for a minute.

"All right, Fatkin," he said; "make it a hundred and fifty dollars
_und fertig_."

"Three hundred dollars _oder_ nothi