Morris put on his hat and lit a cigar.
“I will do this thing to satisfy you, Abe,” he said, “but I tell you right now, Abe, it ain’t necessary, because Kleebaum is as good as gold, y’understand, and if you don’t want to ship him the goods you don’t have to.”
Abe grinned ironically.
“How could you talk like that, Mawruss, when the feller is doing you a favor by selling you that oitermobile for twenty-one hundred dollars!” he said. “And besides, Mawruss, if we ship him the goods and he does bust up on us, Pfingst is got to pay the twenty-one hundred dollars, and he couldn’t make no claims for shortages or extra discounts neither.”
“The idee is all right, Abe,” Morris replied as he opened the show-room door, “if the feller would sign it, which I don’t think he would.”
With this ultimatum he hastened uptown to Pfingst’s warerooms, where he assured the automobile dealer that unless the guarantee was signed, there would be no sale of the car, for he flatly declined to pay cash and Pfingst refused to accept the purchaser’s note without Potash & Perlmutter’s indorsement. After a lengthy discussion Pfingst receded from his position and signed the guarantee, whereupon Morris surrendered the note and returned to his place of business.
On April 21st Potash & Perlmutter shipped Kleebaum’s order, and one week later Morris moved out to Johnsonhurst. Five days after his migration to that garden spot of Greater New York he entered the firm’s show-room at a quarter past ten.
“We got blocked at Flatbush Avenue this morning,” he said to Abe, “and——”
But Abe was paying no attention to his partner’s excuses. Instead he thrust a morning paper at Morris and with a trembling forefinger indicated the following scarehead:
RICH GIRL WEDS
OWN CHAUFFEUR
PFINGST FAMILY SHOCKED BY
JULIA’S ELOPEMENT
PAIR REPORTED IN SOUTH
HEIRESS WAS ABOUT TO
WED WEALTHY MERCHANT
BEFORE FLIGHT OCCURRED
“What d’ye think of that, Mawruss,” Abe cried.
Morris read the story carefully before replying.
“That’s a hard blow to Kleebaum and old man Pfingst, Abe,” he said.
“I bet yer,” Abe replied, “but it ain’t near the hard blow it’s going to be to a couple of concerns what you and me know, Mawruss. Klinger told me only yesterday that Kleebaum would get twenty thousand with that girl, Mawruss, and I guess he needed it, Mawruss. Moe Rabiner says that they got weather like January already out in Minnesota, and every retail dry-goods concern is kicking that they ain’t seen a dollar’s worth of business this spring.”
“But Kleebaum’s got a tremendous following in Minneapolis, Abe,” Morris said. “He’s got an oitermobile delivery system.”
“Don’t pull that on me again, Mawruss,” Abe broke in. “Women ain’t buying summer garments in cold weather just for the pleasure of seeing the goods delivered in an oitermobile, which reminds me, Mawruss: Did Pfingst deliver you his oitermobile yet?”