And he spread the rags out before him.
Isay Fomitch, who had been too timid to utter a word and so cowed at his first entrance that he had not dared to raise his eyes in the crowd of mocking, disfigured and terrible faces which hemmed him in, was cheered at once at the sight of the proferred pledge, and began briskly turning over the rags. He even held them up to the light. Every one waited to hear what he would say.
“Well, you won’t give me a silver rouble, I suppose? It’s worth it, you know,” said the would-be borrower winking at Isay Fomitch.
“A silver rouble, no, but seven kopecks maybe.”
And those were the first words uttered by Isay Fomitch in prison. Every one roared with laughter.
“Seven! Well, give me seven then; it’s a bit of luck for you. Mind you take care of the pledge; it’s as much as your life’s worth if you lose it.”
“With three kopecks interest makes ten,” the Jew went on jerkily in a shaking voice, putting his hand in his pocket for the money and looking timidly at the convicts. He was fearfully scared, and at the same time he wanted to do business.
“Three kopecks a year interest, I suppose?”
“No, not a year, a month.”
“You are a tight customer, Jew! What’s your name.”
“Isay Fomitch.”
“Well, Isay Fomitch, you’ll get on finely here! Good-bye.” Isay Fomitch examined the pledge once more, folded it up carefully and put it in his sack in the midst of the still laughing convicts.
Every one really seemed to like him and no one was rude to him, though almost all owed him money. He was himself as free from malice as a hen, and, seeing the general goodwill with which he was regarded, he even swaggered a little, but with such simple-hearted absurdity that he was forgiven at once. Lutchka who had known many Jews in his day often teased him and not out of ill-feeling, but simply for diversion, just as one teases dogs, parrots, or any sort of trained animal. Isay Fomitch saw that clearly, was not in the least offended and answered him back adroitly.
“Hey, Jew, I’ll give you a dressing!”
“You give me one blow and I’ll give you ten,” Isay Fomitch would respond gallantly.
