“No,” Morris replied, “but you can sell it.”

“Well,” Louis admitted, “selling houses ain’t in my line?  Maybe if I knew enough about it I could sell it.”

“But there’s real-estaters what knows all about selling a house,” Morris began.

“You bet there is,” Abe interrupted savagely.

“And you could get a real-estater to sell it for you,” Morris concluded with malevolent glance at his partner.

Louis consulted a list of the tenants which he had made.

“I’ll think it over,” he said, “and let you know to-morrow.”

The next day he greeted Abe and Morris more cordially.

“I thought it over, Abe,” he said, “and I guess it’ll be all right.”

“Fine!” Abe cried.  “Let’s go down and see Henry D. Feldman right away.”

Just as a congenital dislocation of the hipbone suggests the name of Doctor Lorenz, so the slightest dislocation of the cloak and suit business immediately calls for Henry D. Feldman.  No cloak and suit bankruptcy would be complete without his name as attorney, either for the petitioning creditors or the bankrupt, and no action for breach of contract of employment on the part of a designer or a salesman could successfully go to the jury unless Henry D. Feldman wept crocodile tears over the summing up of the plaintiff’s case.

In the art of drawing agreements relative to the cloak and suit trade in all its phases of buying, selling, employing or renting, he was a virtuoso, and his income was that of six Supreme Court judges rolled into one.  For the rest, he was of impressive, clean-shaven appearance, and he was of the opinion that a liberal sprinkling of Latin phrases rendered his conversation more pleasing to his clients.

Louis and Abe were ushered into his office only after half an hour’s waiting at the end of a line of six clients, and they wasted no time in stating their business.

“Mr. Feldman,” Abe murmured, “this is Mr. Louis Mintz what comes to work by us as a salesman.”

“Mr. Mintz,” Mr. Feldman said, “you are to be congratulated.  Potash & Perlmutter have a reputation in the trade nulli secundum, and it is generally admitted that the goods they produce are summa cum laude.”

“We make fall and winter goods, too,” Abe explained.  “All kinds of garments, Mr. Feldman.  I don’t want to give Louis no wrong impression.  He’s got to handle lightweights as well as heavyweights, too.”

Mr. Feldman stared blankly at Abe and then continued:  “No doubt you have quite settled on the terms.”

“We’ve talked it all over,” said Louis, “and this is what it is.”

He then specified the salary and commission to be paid, and engaged Mr. Feldman to draw the deed for the tenement house.

“And how long is this contract to last?” Feldman asked.

“For five years,” Abe replied.

“Five years nothing,” said Louis.  “I wouldn’t work for no one on a five years’ contract.  One year is what I want it.”