o
indignant comment. He beckoned Sternsilver to accompany him to the
office and when he reached the door he broke into an angry tirade:

"_Nu_, Sternsilver," he began, "ain't you got to do nothing else but
learn that girl the whole morning? What do I pay a foreman wages he
should fool away his time like that?"

"What d'ye mean, fool away my time, Mr. Seiden?" Sternsilver protested.
"Ain't you told me I should learn her something, on account she is a
relation from your wife already?"

"Sure, I told you you should learn her something," Seiden admitted;
"but I ain't told you you should learn her everything in one morning
already. She ain't such a close relation as all that, y'understand. The
trouble with you is, Sternsilver, you don't use your head at all. A
foreman must got to think oncet in a while, Sternsilver. Don't leave
all the thinking to the boss, Sternsilver. I got other things to bother
my head over, Sternsilver, without I should go crazy laying out the
work in the shop for the foreman."

Thus admonished, Sternsilver returned to the workroom more strongly
convinced than ever that, unless he could carry out the idea suggested
by his conversation with Fatkin, there would be a summary ending to his
job as foreman. As soon, therefore, as the lunch-hour arrived he
hustled Fatkin to a Bath-brick dairy restaurant and then and there
unfolded his scheme.

"Say, listen here, Fatkin," he commenced. "Why don't a young feller
like you get married?"

Fatkin remained silent. He was soaking zwieback in coffee and applying
it to his face in such a manner that the greater part of it filled his
mouth and rendered conversation impossible.

"There's many a nice girl, which she could cook herself and wash
herself A Number One, y'understand, would be only too glad to get a
decent, respectable feller like you," Sternsilver went on.

Hillel Fatkin acknowledged the compliment by a tremendous fit of
coughing, for in his embarrassment he had managed to inhale a crum of
the zwieback. His effort to remove it nearly strangled him, but at
length the dislodged particle found a target in the right eye of an
errand boy sitting opposite. For some moments Sternsilver was unable to
proceed, by reason of the errand boy's tribute to Hillel's table
manners. Indeed, so masterly was this example of profane invective that
the manager of the lunchroom, without inquiring into the merits of the
controversy, personally led Hillel's victim to the door