Potash Perlmutter | Page 7

seller."
"Arverne Sacque!" Leon cried. "That's all everybody says. We can't
make a million dollars out of one garment alone, Barney. We can't even
make expenses. I'm afraid we'll go in the hole over ten thousand dollars
if we don't get rid of him."
"But we can't get rid of him," said Barney. "We got a contract with
him."

"Don't I know it?" said Leon, sadly. "Ain't I paid Henry D. Feldman a
hundred dollars for drawing it up? He's got us, Barney. Louis
Grossman's got us and no mistake. Well, I got to go up to the
cutting-room and see what he's doing now, Barney. He can spoil more
piece-goods in an hour than I can buy in a week."
He rose wearily to his feet and was half-way to the stairs in the rear of
the store when Abe Potash entered.
"Hallo, Leon!" Abe called. "Don't be in a rush. I want to talk to you."
Leon returned to the show-room and shook hands limply with Abe. It
was a competitor's, not a customer's, shake.
"Well, Abe," he said, "how's business?"
"If we got a good designer like you got, Leon," Abe replied, "we
would----"
"A good designer!" Barney broke in. "Why----"
His involuntary disclaimer ended almost where it began with a furtive,
though painful, kick from his elder brother.
"A good designer, Abe," Leon went on hastily, "is a big asset, and
Louis Grossman is a first-class A Number One designer. We done a
tremendous spring business through Louis. I suppose you heard about
our style forty-one-fifty?"
Abe nodded.
"Them Arverne Sacques," he said. "Yes, I heard about it from
everybody I meet. He must be a gold-mine, that Louis Grossman."
"He is," Leon continued. "Our other styles, too, he turns out wonderful.
Our Empire models what he designs for us, Abe, I assure you is also
making a tremendous sensation. You ought to see the letter we got this
morning from Horowitz & Finkelbein."

Barney blew his nose with a loud snort.
"I guess I'll go upstairs, and see what the boys is doing in the
cutting-room, Leon," he said, and made a hasty exit.
"Not that Louis Grossman ain't a good cutting-room foreman, too,
Abe," said Leon, "but we're just getting in some new piece-goods and
Barney wants to check 'em off. But I ain't asked you yet what we can
do for you? A recommendation, maybe? Our credit files is open to you,
Abe."
Abe pushed his hat back from his forehead and mopped his brow. Then
he sat down and lit a cigar.
"Leon," he commenced, "what's the use of making a lot of talk about it.
I'm going to talk to you man to man, Leon, and no monkey-business
about it nor nothing. I'm going to be plain and straightforward, Leon,
and tell it to you right from the start what I want. I don't believe in no
beating bushes around, Leon, and when I say a thing I mean it. I got to
talk right out, Leon. That's the kind of man I am."
"All right, Abe," Leon said. "Don't spring it on me too sudden, though."
"Well," Abe continued, "it's this way."
He gave one last puff at his cigar.
"Leon," he said, "how much will you take for Louis Grossman?"
"Take!" Leon shouted. "Take! Why, Abe----"
He stopped suddenly, and, recovering his composure just in the nick of
time, remained silent.
"I know, Leon, he's a valuable man," Abe said earnestly, "but I'm
willing to be fair, Leon. Of course I ain't a hog, and I don't think you
are."
"No, I ain't," Leon replied quite calmly; "I ain't a hog, and so I say I

wouldn't take nothing for him, Abe, because, Abe, if I told you what I
would take for him, Abe, then, maybe, you might have reason for
calling me a hog."
"Oh, no, I wouldn't, Leon," Abe protested. "I told you I know he's a
valuable man, so I want you should name a price."
"I should name a price!" Leon cried. "Why, Abe, I'm surprised at you.
If I go to a man to sell something what I like to get rid of it, and he
don't want, then I name the price. But if a man comes to me to buy
something what I want to keep, and what he's got to have, Abe, then he
names the price. Ain't it?"
Abe looked critically at the end of his smoldering cigar.
"Well, Leon," he said at length, "if I must name a price, I suppose I
must. Now I know you will think me crazy, Leon, but I want to get a
good designer bad, Leon, and so I say"--here he paused to note the
effect--"five hundred dollars."
Leon held out his hand.
"I guess