" Abe replied, "I'm sorry to say we can't, because, by the
agreement what Henry D. Feldman drew up, Sammet Brothers has the sole
right to make up and sell the Arverne Sacques; but I seen to it,
Mawruss, that we got the right to make up and sell every other garment
what Louis Grossman originated for them this season."

He smiled triumphantly at his partner.

"And," he concluded, "he's coming to work Monday morning."

At the end of three disillusionizing weeks Abe Potash and Morris
Perlmutter sat in the show-room of their place of business. Abe's hat
was tilted over his eyes and he whistled a tuneless air. Morris was
biting his nails.

"Well, Mawruss," Abe said at length, "when we're stuck we're stuck;
ain't it? What's the use of sitting here like a couple of mummies; ain't
it?"

Morris ceased biting his nails.

"Yes, Abe," he said, "ten hundred and thirty-three, thirty-three for a
designer what couldn't design paper-bags for a delicatessen store. I
believe he must have took lessons in designing from a correspondence
school."

"Believe me, Mawruss, he learned it by telephone," Abe replied. "But
cussing him out won't do no good, Mawruss. The thing to do now is to get
busy and turn out some garments what we can sell. Them masquerade
costumes what he gets up you couldn't sell to a five-and-ten-cent
store."

"All right," Morris said. "Let's have another designer and leave Louis
to do the cutting."

"_Another_ designer!" Abe exclaimed. "No, Mawruss, you're a good enough
designer for me. I always said it, Mawruss, you're a first-class A
Number One designer."

Thus encouraged, Morris once more took up the work of the firm's
designing, and he labored with the energy of despair, for the season was
far spent. At length he evolved four models that made Abe's eyes fairly
bulge.

"That's snappy stuff, Mawruss," he said, as he examined the completed
samples one morning. "I bet yer they sell like hot cakes."

Abe's prophecy more than justified itself, and in ten days they were
completely swamped with orders. Abe and Morris went around wearing
smiles that only relaxed when they remembered Louis Grossman and his
hide-bound agreement, under which he drew five per cent. of the firm's
profits and sixty dollars a week.

"Anyhow, Mawruss, we'll get some return from Louis Grossman," Abe said.
"I advertised in the Daily Cloak and Suit Record yesterday them four
styles of yours as the four best sellers of the season, originated