"
In spite of this, however, he was in his own way a deeply religious man.
Strict, severe, almost superstitious in obeying the Levitical laws and
in practising the sad and rather gloomy symbolism of his faith. A famous
Talmudist, a pillar of the synagogue, one of the two wardens of the
Chevra in Brick Lane, and consequently a great upholder of moral
rectitude.
His house seemed to be a solid mass of human beings, chiefly Jewish
girls, who worked all day, and sometimes (when regulations could be
evaded or double gangs engaged) all night, for the Jew drove everybody
at high speed, not excepting his wife, who cooked the food and pressed
the clothes at the same time.
In this hive of industry I needed no spur to make me work.
Every morning Mrs. Abramovitch brought up a thick pile of vests to my
room, and every evening she took them down again, after counting my
earnings with almost preternatural rapidity and paying me, day by day,
with unfailing promptitude.
At the end of my first week I found I had made ten shillings.
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