r it I ain't, Max. I don't got to look for it, because when
a feller got it a competitor like Greenberg & Sen, Max, he could find
trouble without looking for it. Them suckers was eating lunch in
Wasserbauer's on Monday when Aaron goes in there with Fillup.
Elenbogen, of Plotkin & Elenbogen, seen the whole thing, Max, and he
told it me this morning in the subway to make me feel bad. Sometimes
without meaning it at all a feller could do you a big favour when he
tells you something for spite. Ain't it?"

"What did he tell you?" Max asked.

"He says that Greenberg & Sen goes over to Aaron's table and the first
thing you know a box of cigars is going around and Fillup is drinking a
bottle of celery tonic. Elenbogen says you would think Aaron was
nobody, because them two fellers ain't paid no attentions to him at
all. Everything was Fillup. They made a big holler about the boy, Max,
and they asks Elenbogen to lend 'em his fountain pen so the boy could
make it birds on the back of the bill-off-fare. Elenbogen says his
fountain pen was put out of business ever since. Also, Sen insists on
taking the bill-off-fare away with him, and Elenbogen says Aaron feels
so set up about it he thought he would spit blood yet, the way he
coughs."

"That's a couple of foxy young fellers," Max said. "You could easy get
around a feller like Aaron Pinsky, Sam. He's a soft proposition."

Sam nodded and was about to voice another criticism of Aaron much less
complimentary in character, when the elevator door clanged and Aaron
himself entered the showroom.

"Well, boys," he said, "looks like we would get an early spring. Here
it is only February already and I feel it that the winter is pretty
near over. I could always tell by my throat what the weather is going
to be. My cough lets up on me something wonderful, and with me that's
always what you would call a sign of spring."

"Might it's a sign that Miss Meyerson's medicine done you good, maybe,"
Max commented.

"Well, certainly it ain't done me no harm," Aaron said. "I took six
bottles already, and though it ain't the tastiest thing in the world,
y'understand, it loosens up the chest something wonderful."

He slapped himself in the region of the diaphragm and sat down
deliberately.

"However," he began, "I ain't come to talk to you about myself. I got
something else to say."

He paused impressively, while Max and Sam exchanged mournful glances.

"I come to talk to you about Fillup," he