he dark spider-webbed landing, "Your God has forgotten you."

"Do you mean that men have forgotten Him?" replied Zussmann. "If I am
come to poverty, my suffering is in the scheme of things. Do you not
remember what the Almighty says to Eleazar ben Pedos, in the Talmud,
when the Rabbi complains of poverty? 'Wilt thou be satisfied if I
overthrow the universe, so that perhaps thou mayest be created again
in a time of plenty?' No, no, my friend, we must trust the scheme."

"But the fools enjoy prosperity," said the Red Beadle.

"It is only a fool who _would_ enjoy prosperity," replied Zussmann.
"If the righteous sometimes suffer and the wicked sometimes flourish,
that is just the very condition of virtue. What! would you have
righteousness always pay and wickedness always fail! Where then would
be the virtue in virtue? It would be a mere branch of commerce. Do you
forget what the Chassid said of the man who foreknew in his lifetime
that for him there was to be no heaven? 'What a unique and enviable
chance that man had of doing right without fear of reward!'"

The Red Beadle, as usual, acquiesced in the idea that he had forgotten
these quotations from the Hebrew, but to acquiesce in their teachings
was another matter. "A man who had no hope of heaven would be a fool
not to enjoy himself," he said doggedly, and went downstairs, his
heart almost bursting. He went straight to his old synagogue, where he
knew a _Hesped_ or funeral service on a famous _Maggid_ (preacher) was
to be held. He could scarcely get in, so dense was the throng. Not a
few eyes, wet with tears, were turned angrily on him as on a mocker
come to gloat, but he hastened to weep too, which was easy when he
thought of Hulda coughing in her bed in the garret. So violently did
he weep that the _Gabbai_ or treasurer--one of the most pious
master-bootmakers--gave him the "Peace" salutation after the service.

"I did not expect to see you weeping," said he.

"Alas!" answered the Red Beadle. "It is not only the fallen Prince in
Israel that I weep; it is my own transgressions that are brought home
to me by his sudden end. How often have I heard him thunder and
lighten from this very pulpit!" He heaved a deep sigh at his own
hypocrisy, and the _Gabbai_ sighed in response. "Even from the grave
the _Tsaddik_ (saint) works good," said the pious master-bootmaker.
"May my latter end be like his!"

"Mine, too!" suspired the Red Beadle. "How blessed am I not to have
bee