had gone, "_for me_."

The following Saturday Abe sat in the show-room making up the weekly
payroll, and with his own hand he drew a check to the order of Louis
Grossman for forty dollars.

"Mawruss," he said, "do me the favor and go upstairs to Louis Grossman.
You know what to say to him."

"Why should _I_ go, Abe?" Morris said. "You know the whole plan. You saw
Feldman."

"But it don't look well for me," Abe rejoined. "Do me the favor and go
yourself."

Morris shrugged his shoulders and departed, while Abe turned to the
pages of the Daily Cloak and Suit Record to bridge over the anxious
period of Morris' absence. The first item that struck his eye appeared
under the heading, "Alterations and Improvements."

"The Bon Ton Credit Outfitting Company, Isaac Herzog, Proprietor," it
read, "is about to open a manufacturing department, and will, on and
after June 1, do all its own manufacturing and alterations in the
enlarged store premises, Nos. 5940, 5942 and 5946 Second Avenue."

Abe laid down the paper with a sigh.

"There's where we lose another good customer," he said as Morris
returned. A wide grin was spread over Morris' face.

"Well, Mawruss?" Abe asked.

"Yes, Abe," Morris replied. "Ten hundred and thirty-three, thirty-three
you paid for him. And now you must pay him forty dollars a week. _I_
ain't so generous, Abe, believe me. I settled with him for
twenty-seven-fifty."

"Well, Mawruss, it's only for one week," Abe protested.

"I know," said Morris, "but why should _he_ get the benefit of it?"

"Did you have much of a time getting him to take it?" Abe asked.

"It was like this," Morris explained. "I told him what you said about a
lump sum in place of profits and asked him to name his price, and the
first thing he says was twenty-seven-fifty."

"And you let him have it for that?" Abe cried. "You're a business man,
Mawruss, I must say. I bet yer he would have took twenty-five."

He tore up the check for forty dollars and drew a new one for
twenty-seven-fifty.

"Here, Mawruss," he said, "take it up to him like a good feller."

It was precisely noon when Morris delivered the check to Louis Grossman,
and it was one o'clock when Louis went out to lunch.

Three o'clock struck before Abe first noted his absence.

"Ain't that feller come back from his dinner yet, Mawruss?" he asked.

"No," Morris replied. "I wonder what can be keeping him. He generally
takes half an hour for his dinner."

At this