A moment later Miss Aaronstamm entered, and sat down at a sample table.

“Write to the Boston Store,” Leon Sammet said. “’Horowitz & Finkelbein, Proprietors, Gents’—­got that?  ’We received your favor of the eighteenth instant, and in reply would say we don’t accept no styles what you return.’  Got that?  ’If your Miss Kenny can’t breathe in them garments that ain’t our fault.  They wasn’t made to breathe in; they was made to sell.  You say she is a perfect thirty-six.  How do we know that?  We ain’t never measured her, and we don’t believe you have, neither.  Anyway, we ain’t taking back no goods what we sold once.  Yours truly.’  That’s all, Miss Aaronstamm.  I guess that’ll fix ’em.  What, Barney?”

Barney nodded gloomily.

“I tell you, Barney,” Leon went on, “I wish I never seen that Louis Grossman.  He certainly got into us good and proper.”

“I don’t know, Leon,” said Barney.  “That Arverne Sacque was a record seller.”

“Arverne Sacque!” Leon cried.  “That’s all everybody says.  We can’t make a million dollars out of one garment alone, Barney.  We can’t even make expenses.  I’m afraid we’ll go in the hole over ten thousand dollars if we don’t get rid of him.”

“But we can’t get rid of him,” said Barney.  “We got a contract with him.”

“Don’t I know it?” said Leon, sadly.  “Ain’t I paid Henry D. Feldman a hundred dollars for drawing it up?  He’s got us, Barney.  Louis Grossman’s got us and no mistake.  Well, I got to go up to the cutting-room and see what he’s doing now, Barney.  He can spoil more piece-goods in an hour than I can buy in a week.”

He rose wearily to his feet and was half-way to the stairs in the rear of the store when Abe Potash entered.

“Hallo, Leon!” Abe called.  “Don’t be in a rush.  I want to talk to you.”

Leon returned to the show-room and shook hands limply with Abe.  It was a competitor’s, not a customer’s, shake.

“Well, Abe,” he said, “how’s business?”

“If we got a good designer like you got, Leon,” Abe replied, “we would——­”

“A good designer!” Barney broke in.  “Why——­”

His involuntary disclaimer ended almost where it began with a furtive, though painful, kick from his elder brother.

“A good designer, Abe,” Leon went on hastily, “is a big asset, and Louis Grossman is a first-class A Number One designer.  We done a tremendous spring business through Louis.  I suppose you heard about our style forty-one-fifty?”

Abe nodded.

“Them Arverne Sacques,” he said.  “Yes, I heard about it from everybody I meet.  He must be a gold-mine, that Louis Grossman.”

“He is,” Leon continued.  “Our other styles, too, he turns out wonderful.  Our Empire models what he designs for us, Abe, I assure you is also making a tremendous sensation.  You ought to see the letter we got this morning from Horowitz & Finkelbein.”

Barney blew his nose with a loud snort.