"Bring that woman back here!" Max roared. Miss Holzmeyer made a dash for the stairway, and before Elkan had time to formulate even a tentative plan of escape she had returned with her quarry.
"What do you want from me?" Mrs. Feinermann gasped. Her hat was awry, and what had once been a modish pompadour was toppled to one side and shed hairpins with every palsied nod of her head. "I ain't done nothing!" she protested.
"Sure, you ain't," Elkan said; "so you should keep your mouth shut--that's all."
"I would keep my mouth shut _oder_ not as I please," Mrs. Feinermann retorted. "Furthermore, you ain't got no business to get me mixed up in this _Geschichte_ at all!"
"This here feller is a young feller by the name of Elkan Lubliner which he is working by Polatkin & Scheikowitz," Mrs. Feinermann announced; "and what he is bringing me up here for is more than I could tell you."
"_Oser a Stück!_" Mrs. Feinermann declared fervently. "A kid like him should be my husband! An idee!"
"That's all right," Elkan rejoined. "_Im Russland_ at my age many a young feller is got twins yet!"
"What's that got to do with it?" Max Lapin demanded.
"It ain't got nothing to do with it," Elkan said, "but it shows that a young feller like me which he is raised in the old country ain't such a kid as you think for, Mr. Lapin. And when I am telling you that the concern which sells you them goods to retail for twenty-eight dollars is sticking you good, understand me, you could take my word for it just the same like I would be fifty-five even."
"And what's more," he went on breathlessly, "the workmanship is rotten. Look at here!--the seams is falling to pieces already!"
He thrust the garment under Lapin's nose with one hand, while with the other he dug down into his trousers pocket.
"Here!" he shouted. "Here is money--fifty dollars!"
He dropped the gown and held out a roll of bills toward Lapin.
"Take it!" he said hysterically. "Take it all; and if I don't bring you to-morrow morning, first thing, this same identical style, only A-number-one workmanship, which you could retail for twenty dollars a garment, understand me, keep the money and _fertig_."
At this juncture the well-nourished figure of Louis Appenweier, senior member of Appenweier & Murray, appeared in the door of the elevator and Max Lapin turned on his heel.