the house, plumbing and all."

At the word "plumbing" Glaubmann started visibly.

"The plumbing would be fixed so good as new," he said; "and I tell you
what I would do also, Mr. Lubliner--I would pay fifty per cent. of the
decorations if Mr. Ortelsburg would make me an allowance of a hundred
dollars on the commission!"

"Could anything be fairer than this?" Ortelsburg exclaimed; and he
grinned maliciously as Louis Stout succumbed to a fit of coughing.

"But we ain't even seen the house!" Elkan cried.

"Never mind we ain't seen it," Yetta said; "if the house is the same
like this that's all I care about."

"Sure, I know," Elkan replied; "but I want to see the house first before
I would even commence to think of buying it."

"_Schon gut!_" Glaubmann said. "I ain't got no objection to show you the
house from the outside; _aber_ there is at present people living in the
house, understand me, which for the present we couldn't go inside."

"Mr. Lubliner don't want to see the inside, Glaubmann!" Ortelsburg
cried, in tones implying that he deprecated Glaubmann's suggestion as
impugning Elkan's good faith in the matter. "The inside would be
repaired and decorated to suit, Mr. Glaubmann, but the outside he's got
a right to see; so we would all go round there and give a look."

Ten minutes afterward a procession of nine persons passed through the
streets of Burgess Park and lingered on the sidewalk opposite
Glaubmann's house. There Ortelsburg descanted on the comparatively high
elevation of Linden Boulevard and Mrs. Ortelsburg pointed out the
chicken-raising possibilities of the back lot; and, after gazing at the
shrubbery and incipient shade trees that were planted in the front yard,
the line of march was resumed in the direction of Burgess Park's
business neighbourhood. Another pause was made at Mrs. J. Kaplin's
delicatessen store; and, laden with packages of smoked tongue, Swiss
cheese and dill pickles, the procession returned to the Ortelsburg
residence marshalled by Benno Ortelsburg, who wielded as a baton a
ten-cent loaf of rye bread.

Thus the remainder of the evening was spent in feasting and more
pinocle until nearly midnight, when Elkan and Yetta returned to town on
the last train. Hence, with his late homecoming and the Ortelsburgs'
delicatessen supper, Elkan slept ill that night, so that it was past
nine o'clock before he arrived at his office the following morning.
Instead of the satirical greeting which h