I would give the feller at the outside. A feller
couldn't attend to business if he would set up till all hours of the
night playing fiddle with that lowlife, Rabiner. That ain't all yet,
neither! Yesterday he pays for a fiddle three thousand dollars."

"For a fiddle three thousand dollars!" cried one of the group, and the
good half of a dill pickle fell from Morris's limp grasp.

"That's what I said," Louis continued; "for three thousand dollars yet
he is buying a fiddle. With my own eyes I seen it in the paper this
morning; and when a feller puts three thousand dollars into a fiddle,
y'understand, he could kiss himself good-by with his business."

At this juncture Morris beckoned to the waiter.

"Say," he said hoarsely, "never mind that roast spring lamb and stuffed
tomatoes. Bring me instead a rye-bread tongue sandwich and a cup
coffee."

After the waiter had gone Morris settled back in his chair and listened
once more to the conversation at the next table.

"All right; then I'm a liar," he heard Louis say. "I tell you I got the
paper in my overcoat pocket right now."

Louis rose from his seat and securing the morning paper from his
overcoat he read aloud the following item:

PAYS HEAVILY FOR AMATI VIOLIN

Mrs. Helene Karanyi, widow of the celebrated violinist, Bela
Karanyi, has sold her husband's favourite Amati at a price said to
be over three thousand dollars. The purchaser is Felix Geigermann,
who said yesterday that the violin had been in his possession for
some time, and that there was no doubt of its authenticity. It was
presented to Karanyi by the late Prince Ludovic Esterhazy, whose
collection of Cremona violins, now preserved by his son, is said to
be the finest in the world. Mr. Geigermann is the well-known Harlem
dry-goods merchant.

Louis Kleiman folded the paper and laid it on the table.

"That's the way it goes, boys," he said in heightened tones, for by this
time he had caught sight of Morris. "A new beginner comes to you and you
give him a little line of credit, y'understand, and pretty soon he is
buying more and more goods till he gets to be a big _macher_ like Felix
Geigermann. Then either one of two things happens to you: Either he
begins to think you are too small for him and he turns around and buys
goods from some other sucker, y'understand, _oder_ he goes to work and
throws away his money left and right on oitermobiles _oder_ fiddles