She was the cousin of his deceased wife, and lived in Zachariah Square.

Moses had not been there for a month, for Malka was a wealthy twig of the family tree, to be approached with awe and trembling.

She kept a second-hand clothes store in Houndsditch, a supplementary stall in the Halfpenny Exchange, and a barrow on the "Ruins" of a Sunday; and she had set up Ephraim, her newly-acquired son-in-law, in the same line of business in the same district.

Like most things she dealt in, her son-in-law was second-hand, having lost his first wife four years ago in Poland.

But he was only twenty-two, and a second-hand son-in-law of twenty-two is superior to many brand new ones.