Veitel Itzig still occupied the same sleeping-quarters as on the evening of his arrival.

If, according to the assertions of the police, every man must have some home or other--and, according to popular opinion, our home be where our bed stands--Veitel was remarkably little at his home.
Whenever he could slip away from Ehrenthal's, he would wander about the streets, and watch for such youths as were likely to buy from or sell to him.

He had always a few dollars to rattle in his pocket.

He never addressed the rawest of schoolboys but as a grown-up man; he was a proficient in the art of bowing, could brighten up old brass and silver as good as new, was always ready to buy old black coats, and possessed the skill of giving them a degree of gloss which insured their selling again.
With every bargain that he made for Ehrenthal he combined one for himself, and soon won a reputation that excited the envy of gray-bearded fripperers.

He did not confine his activity to any one department either, but became a horse-dealer's agent, the _employe_ of secret money-lenders--nay, a money-lender himself.