Barzinsky threw down his cards. 'You can go to the devil!' he cried.
'For shame, Solomon!' said his wife. 'Don't disturb the game.'
'To Gehenna with the game! The shame is on a _Parnass_ to talk like an _Epikouros_ (Epicurean).'
The _Parnass_ blew his nose elaborately. 'It stands in the Talmud: "For vain swearing noxious beasts came into the world." And if----'
'It stands in the Psalmist,' Barzinsky interrupted: '"The Law of Thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver."'
'It stands in the Perek,' the _Parnass_ rejoined severely, 'that the wise man does not break in upon the speech of his fellow.'
'It stands in the Shulchan Aruch,' Barzinsky shrieked, 'that for the sanctification of the Sabbath----'
'It stands in the Talmud,' interposed Mendel, with unwonted animation in his long figure, 'that one must not even offer a nut to allure customers. From light to heavy, therefore, it may be deduced that----'
A still small voice broke in upon the storm. 'But Simeon Samuels hasn't a Christian partner,' said Mrs. Mendel.
'He has only his wife to help him,' she went on. 'I know, because I went to the shop Friday morning on pretence of asking for a cuckoo-clock.'
'But a marine-dealer doesn't sell clocks,' put in the _Parnass's_ wife timidly. It was her first contribution to the conversation, for she was overpowered by her husband's greatness.
'Don't be silly, Hannah!' said the _Parnass_. 'That was just why Mrs. Mendel asked for it.'
'Yes, but unfortunately Simeon Samuels did have one,' Mrs. Mendel confessed; 'and I couldn't get out of buying it.'
'Cut-throat competition, I call it,' snarled Solomon Barzinsky, recovering from his merriment.
'But _you_ don't sell clocks,' said the _Parnass_.
'That's just it; he gets hold of our customers on pretence of selling them something else. The Talmudical prohibition cited by Mendel applies to that too.'
'So I wasn't so silly,' put in the _Parnass's_ wife, feeling vaguely vindicated.
'Well, you saw his wife,' said the _Parnass_ to Mendel's wife, disregarding his own. 'More than I've done, for she wasn't in synagogue. Perhaps _she_ is the Christian partner.' His suggestion brought a new and holier horror over the card-table.
'No, no,' replied Mrs. Mendel reassuringly. 'I caught sight of her frying fish in the kitchen.'