k a hundred and twenty-five dollars for a
fiddle which you are giving Geigermann."

"You got it right, Mawruss," Abe said. "It was a genu-ine Amati."

"For a hundred and twenty-five dollars expenses you are getting an order
for seven hundred and fifty dollars, Abe," Morris said relentlessly;
"and some fellers would throw it up to their partners for months
together yet."

"It was a genu-ine Amati, Mawruss," Abe repeated for the third time,
"and for a genu-ine Amati, Mawruss, a hundred and twenty-five dollars is
no price at all."

"Sure, I know, Abe," Morris said bitterly; "to you a hundred and
twenty-five dollars is nothing at all. We are made of money, Abe, ain't
it? What do you care you are spending a hundred and twenty-five dollars
for a fiddle when for seventy-five dollars on Lenox Avenue and a Hundred
and Sixteenth Street, with my own eyes I seen it, you could buy a square
pianner with a stool and scarf yet, as good as new. If you want to
_schenk_ the feller something, why didn't you told me? What for a
present is a fiddle, Abe, when for half the money we could give him a
pianner yet?"

Abe hung his head in embarrassment.

"But Mawruss," he said, "it was a genu-ine Amati."

For one brief moment Morris choked with rage.

"Genu-ine hell!" he roared, and plunged away to the office.

For the remainder of the morning Abe went about his work in crestfallen
silence, although Morris, after subjecting Geigermann's order to a
little cost bookkeeping on the back of an envelope broke once more into
a cheerful whistle.

"Well, Abe," he said at twelve o'clock, "what is _vorbei_ is _vorbei_.
It ain't no use crying over sour milk, so I am going out to lunch."

"What d'ye mean, sour milk, Mawruss?" Abe retorted. "The sour milk is
all on your side, Mawruss, because I am telling you it was a genu-ine
Amati."

"All right, Abe," Morris said, as he rang for the elevator; "you told me
that _schon_ twenty times already. I wouldn't give you two dollars for
all them genu-ine fellers' fiddles in creation; and that's all there is
to it."

With this ultimatum he stepped into the elevator and five minutes
afterward he sat at a table in Hammersmith's restaurant and beguiled
with a dill pickle the interval between the giving and filling of his
order. At the table next to him sat an animated group, of which Louis
Kleiman was the centre.

"Yes, sirree, sir!" Louis declared, in defiance of the law of scandal
and libel; "six months