ouse by the other with
me," Louis went on. "Her husband does a big real-estate business there.
Might you also know Julius Tarnowitz, of the Tarnowitz-Wixman Department
Store, Rochester?"

"Bought from us a couple years a small bill," Marcus Polatkin said. "I
wish we could sell him more."

"Well, his brother, Sig Tarnowitz, lives across the street from us,"
Louis cried triumphantly. "Sig's got a fine business there on Fifth
Avenue, Brooklyn."

"What for a business?"

"A furniture business," Louis replied. "And might you would know also
Joel Ribnik, which he is running the McKinnon-Weldon Drygoods Company,
of Cyprus, Pennsylvania?"

"That's the feller what you nearly sold that big bill to last month,
Elkan," Scheikowitz commented.

"Well, his sister is married to a feller by the name Robitscher, of
Robitscher, Smith & Company, the wallpaper house and interior
decorators. They got an elegant place down the street from us."

"But----" Elkan began again.

"But nothing, Elkan!" Marcus Polatkin interrupted with a ferocious wink;
for Louis Stout, as junior partner in the thriving Williamsburg store
of Flugel & Stout, was viewing Polatkin, Scheikowitz & Company's line
preparatory to buying his spring line of dresses. "But nothing, Elkan!
Mr. Stout knows what he is talking about, Elkan; and if I would be you,
instead I would argue with him, understand me, I would take Yetta out to
Burgess Park on Sunday and give the place a look."

"That's the idea!" Louis cried. "And you should come and take dinner
with us first. Mrs. Stout would be delighted."

"What time do you eat dinner?" Philip Scheikowitz asked, frowning
significantly at Elkan.

"Two o'clock," Louis replied, and Polatkin and Scheikowitz nodded in
unison.

"He'll be there," Polatkin declared.

"At a quarter before two," Scheikowitz added and Elkan smiled
mechanically by way of assent.

"So come along, Mr. Stout," Polatkin said, "and look at them Ethel
Barrymore dresses. I think you'll like 'em."

He led Stout from the office as he spoke while Scheikowitz remained
behind with Elkan.

"Honest, Elkan," he said, "I'm surprised to see the way you are acting
with Louis Stout!"

"What do you mean, the way I'm acting, Mr. Scheikowitz?" Elkan
protested. "Do you think I am going to buy a house in a neighbourhood
which I don't want to live in at all just to oblige a customer?"

"_Schmooes_, Elkan!" Scheikowitz exclaimed. "No one asks you you should
buy a hous