Morris looked long and hard at Abe before replying.

“So, Abe,” he said, “you squashed it in the bud!”

“Well, them two women goes right up and sees my Rosie yesterday, Mawruss,” Abe admitted; “and so my Rosie thinks it wouldn’t do us no harm that we should maybe give the young feller a show.”

“Is your wife Rosie running this business, Abe, or are we?” Morris asked.

“It ain’t a question what Rosie thinks, Mawruss,” Abe explained; “it’s what I think, too.  I think we should give the young feller a show.  He’s a decent, respectable young feller, Mawruss.”

“How do I know that, Abe?” Morris replied.  “I ain’t never seen him, Abe; I don’t even know his name.”

“What difference does that make it, Mawruss?” said Abe.  “I ain’t never seen him neither, Mawruss, and I don’t know his name, too; but he could make up our line just as good, whether his name was Thomassheffsky or Murphy.  Also, what good would it do us if we did see him first?  I’m sure, Mawruss, we ain’t giving out our work to Satinstein because he’s a good-looking feller, and Ginsburg & Kaplan ain’t no John Drews neither, so far what I hear it, Mawruss.”

“That ain’t the idee, Abe,” Morris broke in; “the idee is that we got to give up doing our work in our own shop and send it out by a contractor just starting in as a new beginner already—­a young feller what you don’t know and I don’t know, Abe—­and all this we got to do just because you want it, Abe.  Me, I am nothing here, Abe, and you are everything.  You are the dawg and I am the tail.  You are the oitermobile and I am the smell, and that’s the way it goes.”

“Who says that, Mawruss?” Abe interposed.  “I didn’t say it.”

“You didn’t say it, Abe,” Morris went on, “but you think it just the same, and I’m going to show you differencely.  I am content that we move, Abe, only we ain’t going to move unless we can find it two lofts for the same rent what we pay it here.  And we ain’t going to have less room than we got it here neither, Abe, because if we move we’re going to do our own business just the same like we do it here, and that’s flat.”

For the remainder of the day Abe avoided any reference to their impending removal, and it was not until Henochstein entered the show-room the following morning that the discussion was renewed.

“Well, boys,” he said in greeting, “I got it a fine loft for you on Nineteenth Street with twicet as much floor space what you got here.”

“A loft!” Morris cried.

“A loft,” Henochstein repeated.

“One loft?” Morris asked.

“That’s what I said,” Henochstein replied, “one loft with twicet as much floor space, and it’s got light on all——­”

Morris waved his hand for silence.

“Abe,” he said, “this here Henochstein is a friend of yours; ain’t it?”

Abe nodded sulkily.

“Well, take him out of here,” Morris advised, “before I kick him out.”