"Elkan ain't here yet," Max explained, "on account you are a little ahead of time."
Miss Silbermacher's brown eyes sparkled merrily.
"I ain't the only one," she said as she jumped to her feet; for, though the hands of the clock on the desk pointed to ten minutes to two, Elkan Lubliner approached from the direction of the café. He caught sight of them while he was still some distance away, and two overturned chairs marked the last of his progress toward them.
At first he held out his hand in greeting; but the two little dimples that accompanied Yetta's smile overpowered his sense of propriety, and he embraced her affectionately.
Both Kapfer and Miss Silbermacher looked toward the street entrance.
"Did you tell him that I wasn't Ury Shemansky at all?" Elkan inquired.
"Sure I did," Miss Silbermacher replied, "and he goes on something terrible, on account he says Mr. Kapfer told him last night you was already engaged; so I told him I know you was engaged because I am the party you are engaged to."
"And he says then," she continued, "that if that's the case what do we want him down here for? So I told him we are going to meet Mr. Polatkin and Mr. Scheikowitz, and----"
"And they'll be right here in a minute," Kapfer interrupted; "so you go upstairs to my room and I'll find Fischko and bring him up also."
He conducted them to the elevator, and even as the door closed behind them Fischko came running up the hall.
"Kapfer," he said, "who was that feller which he was just here talking to you?"
"What d'ye want to know for?" Kapfer asked.
"Never mind what I want to know for!" Fischko retorted. "Who is he?"
"Well, if you must got to know," Kapfer said, "he's a feller by the name Julius Flixman."
"Fischko," Kapfer protested, "you ain't in no Canal Street coffee house here. This is a first-class hotel."
"Sure, I know," he said. "Is there a place we could sit down here? I want to ask you something a few questions."
Kapfer led the way to the café and they sat down at a table near the door.
"Go ahead, Fischko," he said. "Polatkin and Scheikowitz will be here any minute."
"Well," Fischko began falteringly, "if this here feller is Julius Flixman, which he is coming from Bessarabia _schon_ thirty years ago already, I don't want to do nothing in a hurry, Mr. Kapfer, on account I want to investigate first how things stand."