It must be confessed that through the entire six months of his building operations Morris maintained a stoic calm that effectually hid the storm raging within his breast.  All the annoyances incidental to building a house were heaped on Morris, and both he and Rashkin, equally, suffered petty blackmail at the hands of the attorney and the architect for the building-loan mortgagee.

In the meantime Abe’s grin gained in breadth and malice, and on more than one occasion Morris had foregone the pleasure of assaulting his partner only by the exercise of remarkable self-control.

“Do me the favor, Abe,” he said at length, “and let me in on this joke.”

“It ain’t no joke, Mawruss,” Abe replied.  “I thought you found that out already.”

“If you mean the house, Abe,” Morris answered, “all I got to say is that, if there should be any joke about it, Abe, the joke is on you, for that house is pretty near finished.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Mawruss,” Abe said.  “I suppose Ferdy Rothschild did it a good job on the house.”

“Sure, he did,” Morris said.

“He didn’t get no rake-offs from material men or nothing, Mawruss.  What?” Abe asked.

“Rake-offs!” Morris cried.  “What d’ye mean by that?”

“I mean I seen it Gussarow, the glass man, on the subway last night, Mawruss,” Abe explained, “and he says that for every pane of glass what went into your house, Mawruss, Ferdy Rothschild gets his rake-off.”

“Well, what do I care?” Morris retorted.  “If Gussarow could stand it, Abe, I can.”

“Gussarow can stand it all right, Mawruss,” Abe said reassuringly.  “All he’s got to do is to put it on the bill.”

“Well, if he put it on my bill, Abe,” Morris replied, “he also put it on Rashkin’s bill, because him and me bought the same building material all the way through, and I wouldn’t pay no bills till I saw that Rashkin don’t get charged less as I do.”

This was conclusive, and Abe’s grin relaxed for several inches, nor did it resume its normal width until some days later when Morris began to negotiate for his permanent mortgage loan.  Once Morris remonstrated with him for his levity.

“Must you go around looking like a crazy idiot, Abe?”

“I must got to laugh, Mawruss,” Abe protested, “when I seen it Sam Feder, of the Kosciusko Bank, this morning, and he tells it me you got a permanent mortgage from the I. O. M. A. He says Milton M. Sugarman told him you got it ahead of Rashkin, because you got influence as a lodge brother of Sugarman.”

“Sure, I did,” Morris admitted.

“And then, Mawruss,” Abe went on, “Rashkin hears that the I. O. M. A. is going to make you a permanent loan, so he goes to see Sugarman too.”

“That’s right,” Morris agreed.

“And he says to Sugarman that so long as Sugarman is got to search the title to your house he wouldn’t have to search the title to Rashkin’s house, because both houses stands on the same piece of property.  So he makes a proposition that if Sugarman would charge him only a hundred dollars he would put in an application by the I. O. M. A. for a permanent loan.  Otherwise he would get it from a life-insurance company.”