"Fischko," Scheikowitz interrupted.

"Fischko _oder_ Rashkind," Elkan said--"that's all there is to it. And
if I would get right back to the store I got just time to go up to the
Prince Clarence and meet Max Kapfer; so you would excuse me if I skip."

"Think it over Elkan," Scheikowitz called after him as Elkan left the
cafe, and three quarters of an hour later he entered Polatkin &
Scheikowitz' showroom accompanied by a fashionably attired young man.

"Mr. Polatkin," Elkan said, "shake hands with Mr. Kapfer."

"How do you do, Mr. Kapfer?" Polatkin cried. "This here is my partner,
Philip Scheikowitz."

"How do you do, Mr. Scheikowitz?" Kapfer said. "You are very
conveniently located here. Right in the heart of things, so to speak. I
see across the street is Bleimauer & Gittelmann. Them people was in to
see me last week already and offered me a big bargain in velvet suits,
but I was all stocked up along that line so I didn't hand them no
orders."

"Velvet suits ain't our specialty at all," Polatkin replied; "but I bet
yer if we never seen a velvet suit in all our lives, Mr. Kapfer, we
could work you up a line of velvet suits which would make them velvet
suits of Bleimauer & Gittelmann look like a bundle of rags."

"I don't doubt it," Kapfer rejoined; "but, as I said before, velvet
suits I am all stocked up in, as I couldn't afford to carry very many of
'em."

"That's all right," Polatkin said as he led the way to the showroom. "We
got a line of garments here, Mr. Kapfer, which includes all prices and
styles." He handed Max a large mild cigar as he spoke. "So let's see if
we couldn't suit you," he concluded.

For more than two hours Max Kapfer examined Polatkin & Scheikowitz'
sample line and made so judicious a selection of moderate-priced
garments that Polatkin could not forbear expressing his admiration,
albeit the total amount of the purchase was not large.

"You certainly got the right buying idee, Mr. Kapfer," he said. "Them
styles is really the best value we got."

"I know it," Kapfer agreed. "I was ten years with Paschalson, of
Sarahcuse, Mr. Polatkin, and what I don't know about a popular-price
line of ladies' ready-to-wear garments, underwear and millinery,
Paschalson couldn't learn me. But that ain't what I'm after, Mr.
Polatkin. I'd like to do some high-price business too. If I had the
capital I would improve my store building and put in new fixtures,
understand me, and I could increase my business