The Property of a Lady - Elizabeth Adler [133]
She sat contentedly at the table, her hands in her lap, unable to eat she was so happy.
“Just look at those children,” Rosa marveled, “eating lobster as if they were born to it, and enough meat to make up for all these years of doing without.” She tasted the champagne and said wistfully, “I had champagne once before, when my uncle came over from Latvia. He brought it with him to celebrate his new life.” She sighed and added, “He was knocked down by a brewer’s cart a week later, and he never did get to enjoy his new life.”
“The turkey is delicious,” Zev said politely, refusing the lobster Missie offered him.
“Lobster is traife—not kosher,” Rosa explained, “except for me, it doesn’t matter. I have a more reformed outlook.”
“Then more asparagus,” Missie cried, “more champagne!”
“Only don’t keep us in suspense,” Zev said boldly. “We are longing to hear your surprise.”
“Yes, yes, what’s the surprise?” the children chimed in.
Missie held her glass aloft and said, “I want you to drink to Mr. Florenz Ziegfeld’s new showgirl, Verity Byron.” They looked at her, puzzled. “That’s me,” she added.
Their faces were so astonished that she burst out laughing. “Can you believe it? I am to be Ziegfeld’s new star. And I am to earn two hundred dollars a week, ‘regular as clockwork’—that’s what he said; and ‘working or not’—that’s what Madame Elise said. She is to design my wardrobe—both onstage and off, though I expect to be so busy there won’t be much free time.”
They stared at her, shocked into silence. “Well?” she demanded. “Are you not pleased?”
“It’s wonderful,” Rosa exclaimed, “only tell me I am dreaming and tomorrow I will wake up and find a pumpkin in this room and a glass slipper on the stair!”
“You know what? I really think it was my little ribboned slippers that brought me luck.” Missie turned to Zev and took his hand eagerly. “What do you think, Zev? Are you going to congratulate me?”
“Of course,” he said quietly, “I can see it is a very good job, and the money is ten times a man’s wage here on the Lower East Side. Mazel tov, Missie. I wish you well.”
He downed his champagne quietly while she told them about the new apartment, and for him each delighted cry was like a knife wound. Azaylee had climbed sleepily on to Missie’s lap and she was holding her close, stroking back her blond hair, telling her about her new room just as she had promised.
“Matiushka, what’s the other surprise?” she asked sleepily.
“Why, the other surprise is that you will go to school.”
“School?” Azaylee shot upright. “I want to go to school with Sonia and Rachel!”
Rosa sighed. “Why don’t we talk about it later?” she suggested soothingly. “Meanwhile I have to get my children to bed.”
Her little girls clung to her, sleepy with good food and chocolates and excitement. “I’ll confess, I’ll be sorry to see you go, even though my heart is bursting with gladness for you,” Rosa said sadly. “But you have been through hard times, Missie, and you deserve such a reward.”
Zev waited until they had gone and Azaylee had curled up on the bed with the dog at her feet, and then he drained his glass of champagne in a single gulp and said, “Missie, I’m not asking you to consider such a thing now, but one day maybe, if I was no longer what I am, would you … could you….” It was no good, he just could not ask her to marry him. He said instead, “Would you consent to … to see me, still? I mean, when you are a star?”
She looked into his eyes sympathetically. There was something about Zev that touched her deeply: his sorrow, his loneliness, the polite, unemotional crust that she knew only too well covered wounds even deeper than her own. Stepping closer to him, she whispered, “Yes, Zev, I promise.”
His arms went around her, and at last he was holding her close, close like lovers; he felt heady with love for her, he knew he wanted her. After letting her go he said roughly, “I must leave. Thank you for inviting me to your celebration, Missie. I wish you well in your new life.”