But all my efforts to get Anna into a more intimate
conversation failed. For all our familiarity, it seemed as if we held
our conversations through a thick window-pane. Nevertheless, in
a very vague way, and for no particular reason that I was aware of,
I thought that I sensed encouragement
Tevkin never again approached me with his real-estate ventures,
but the very air of his house these days was full of such ventures. I
met other real-estate men at his home. Their talk was tempting.
my enormous income notwithstanding. Huge fortunes seemed to
be growing like mushrooms all over the five Ghettos of New York
and Brooklyn. I saw men who three years ago had not been worth
a cent and who were now buying and selling blocks of property.
How much they were actually worth was a question which in the
excitement of the "boom" did not seem to matter. It is never a rare
incident among our people for a man with a nebulous fortune of a
few hundred dollars to plunge into a commercial undertaking
involving many thousands; but during that period this was an
every-day affair.
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