CYRILLE FLEISCHMAN
237
He had left his family in their palace on the Riviera alleging impor–
tant matters to settle in Paris and, as usual, his wife had said: "Yes, dear."
Throughout the long journey, Tonski savored his triumphal return. He
reached the Porte d'Italie at ten o'clock. At ten twenty the car was in the
fourth arrondissement. Five minutes later, he walked into the little shul.
Outside, in the street, the limousine with the chauffeur waited, double–
parked like the car of a cabinet officer.
Inside, at that hour of the morning, there was no one but the president
and the secretary, seated at a table at the far end of the room. They were
deep in discussion and didn't raise their heads. Tonski coughed and moved
forward. The secretary glanced up.
"Just a minute," he said.
He continued his dialogue wi th the president:
"if
they say it's a pipe that burst in their place, their insurance pays.
The problem is, those Hungarians aren't insured! I went up and they threw
me out the door. Is that the way to do things?"
Stressing his point, he took Tonski to witness:
"In your opinion, you, straight out of America from what I hear, tell
me, is that the way to do things, not to be insured against water damage in
the twentieth century?"
Tonski was completely bewildered. He'd been traveling all night,
thinking only of the words he would speak. And what were they talking
about to him? What was the secretary talking about since the president
hadn't even raised his head? They were telling him tales of uninsured
neighbors. He coughed again and tried to come out with the Yiddish
speech he'd prepared in his head:
"Dear friends ..."
The president condescended
to
lift his head and interrupted him in
French:
"Tonski, how are you? Sit down; at your age a person isn't likely to do
any more growing."
He sat down.
The secretary handed him a plan of the synagogue:
"How, in your opinion, can a pipe that burst at the Hungarians upstairs
leak down our wall?"
Tonski didn't have the slightest idea. He wasn't interested. He hadn't
come from the Riviera and Canada to study a house plan on a Sunday
morning.
He answered curtly in French:
"I head a business in Canada! I have ten companies with hundreds of
employees. I am not in Paris to waste my time on construction work of
inferior qu<!li ty."
