“What’s the use of making inquiries?” Morris protested.  “Tell him it’s all right.  I got enough of this Miss Kreitmann already, Abe.  She’s killed enough trade for us.”

“What!” Abe cried.  “Tell him it’s all right, when for all I know Mendel Immerglick is headed straight for the bankruptcy courts, Mawruss.  You must be crazy, Mawruss.  Ain’t Hahn said he’s coming down next month to buy his spring goods?  What you want to do, Mawruss?  Throw three to five thousand dollars in the street, Mawruss?”

“You talk foolishness, Abe,” Morris rejoined.  “Once a man gets married, his wife’s family has got to stand for him.  Suppose he does bust up; would that be our fault, Abe?  Then Philip Hahn sets him up in business again, and the first thing you know, Abe, we got two customers instead of one.  And I bet yer we could get Philip Hahn to guarantee the account yet.”

“Them theories what you got, Mawruss, sounds good, but maybe he busts up before they get married, and then, Mawruss, we lose Philip Hahn’s business and Max Fried’s business, and we are also out a sterling silver engagement present for Miss Kreitmann.  Ain’t it?”

He put on his hat and coat and lit a cigar.

“I guess, Mawruss, I’ll go right now,” he concluded, “and see what I can find out about him.”

In three hours he returned and entered the show-room.

“Well, Abe,” Morris cried, “what did you find out?  Is it all right?”

Abe carefully selected a fresh cigar and shook his head solemnly.

“Nix, Mawruss,” he said.  “Mendel Immerglick is nix for a nice girl like Miss Kreitmann.”

He took paper out of his waistcoat pocket for the purpose of refreshing his memory.

“First, I seen Moe Klein, of Klinger & Klein,” he went on.  “Moe says he seen Mendel Immerglick, in the back of Wasserbauer’s Cafe, playing auction pinochle with a couple of loafer salesmen at three o’clock in the afternoon, and while Moe was standing there already them two low-lives set Immerglick back three times on four hundred hands at a dollar a hundred, double double.”

“And what was Moe doing there?” Morris asked.

“I wasn’t making no investigation of Moe, Mawruss,” Abe replied.  “Believe me, I got enough to do to find out about Immerglick.  Also, Moe tells me that Immerglick comes into their place and wants to buy off them three thousand dollars at ninety days.”

“And did they sell him?” Morris asked.

“Did they sell him?” Abe cried.  “If you was to meet a burglar coming into the store at midnight with a jimmy and a dark lantern, Mawruss, I suppose you’d volunteer to give him the combination of the safe.  What?  No, Mawruss, they didn’t sell him.  Such customers is for suckers like Sammet Brothers, Mawruss.  Leon Sammet says they sold him three thousand at four months.  Also, Elenbogen sold him a big bill, same terms, Mawruss.  But big houses like Wechsel, Baum & Miller and Frederick Stettermann won’t sell him at any terms, Mawruss.”