Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

1 Kerry Greenwood
Spanish Jews thought of themselves as Spanish first and Jewish
second? They died all the same, and it was their neighbours who
stoked their fires and looted their houses.’
‘And what is happening now in Palestine?’ asked Phryne,
shaken by Simon’s passionate sincerity.
‘We are building and learning and persisting,’ said Simon.
‘We have patience. Except that I don’t have enough of it,’ he
admitted, relaxing a little and drinking more wine.
‘So no one in your family shares your views?’
‘Uncle Chaim does, but he would never say so. He does not
want to quarrel with my father. But I can talk to him, when the
other fellows are at work.’
‘The other fellows?’
‘You’ve met them, they’ll be at Kadimah tonight. Mrs.
Grossman’s lodgers. The Kaplans, Yossi Liebermann and Isaac
Cohen. It’s a pity about Uncle Chaim. He has really good ideas.
He did a degree to become a pharmaceutical chemist, except
that he didn’t finish it, and he had a really good scheme to
make artificial silk, but he couldn’t get capital and when he did
someone else had already invented it.’
‘Oh?’ Phryne was wondering what Robby was intending to
bring for dessert.
‘That’s definitely the way the world is going, you know,
Phryne. Artificial things. Like art silk, much cheaper than real
silk and you can wash it—are your stockings art silk?’
‘Certainly not,’ said Phryne, brushing away a hand which
was, of course, only attempting to gauge the reality or superficiality
of her underclothing.
‘Artificial wood, that chap and his Bakelite—Uncle Chaim
had an idea about that, too. And artificial rubber, except that
no one’s managed to do that yet. Rubber must be more difficult
than it looks. And….’
‘Indeed,’ agreed Phryne. ‘This, however, is real.’
Robby put down a bowl piled with a strange fluffy yellow
substance which smelt of egg, marsala and sugar.