Morris nodded sadly.

“I believe you’re right, Abe,” he murmured.

“Sure, I’m right, Mawruss,” Abe said; “and also, Mawruss, while I wouldn’t want to say nothing to make you feel worse already, I got to say, Mawruss, that if you would believe I was right six months ago yet, you wouldn’t got to believe I was right now.”

Morris nodded again.  He was thoroughly crushed, and he looked so appealingly at his partner that Abe was unable to withhold his comfort and advice.

“Lookyhere, Mawruss,” he said, “a feller’s got to make a mistake sometimes.  Ain’t it?  And if he didn’t get stuck for a couple of thousand dollars oncet in a while he wouldn’t know the value of his money.  Ain’t it?  But as this thing stands now, Mawruss, I got an idee you ain’t stuck so bad as what you think.”

“No?” Morris said.  “Why ain’t I, Abe?”

“Well, Mawruss, I’ll tell you,” Abe began, with no clear conception of how he would finish.  “You know me, Mawruss; I ain’t a feller what’s got a whole lot to say for myself, but I ain’t got such bad judgment, neither, Mawruss.”

“I seen fellers with worser judgment as you, Abe,” Morris said.

Abe could not forbear a stare of astonishment at this grudging admission.

“At last you got to admit it, Mawruss,” he cried; “but anyhow, Mawruss, go ahead and finish up this here permanent-mortgage-loan business, and then, Mawruss, I will do all I can to help you out.”

Morris rose to his feet.

“Well, Abe,” he began in shaking tones, “I must got to say that I——­”

“Lookyhere, Mawruss,” Abe broke in savagely, “ain’t we fooled away enough time here this morning?  Just because you got your troubles with this here building, Mawruss, ain’t no reason why we shouldn’t attend to business, Mawruss.”

He handed Morris a black cigar, and as they started for the cutting-room they gave vent to their pent-up emotions in great clouds of comforting smoke.

The next fortnight was fraught with so many disagreeable experiences for Morris that he appeared to age visibly, and once more Abe was moved to express his sympathy.

“You shouldn’t take on so, Mawruss,” he said, the morning after the permanent loan was closed.  “The first thing you know, Mawruss, you will be getting a nervous break-up, already.”

“I bet yer I would get a nervous break-up, Abe,” Morris agreed.  “If you would be me, Abe, you would get a nervous break-up, too.  In the first place, Abe, I got to pay them suckers—­them archy-tecks, Pinsky & Gubin, a hundred dollars before they would give it me their final certificate, and then, Abe, I got to schmier it a feller in the tenement-house department another hundred dollars.  And then, Abe, I told it them other two crooks what I thought of ’em, Abe, and you ought to hear the way that horse-thief talks back to me, already.”

“Horse-thief!” Abe said.  “Which one, Mawruss?”