"Is that so?" Morris commented. "I wish we could say the same in New York." "You don't tell me!" Mr. Lowenstein rejoined. "Why, I was over by Garfunkel and Levy just now, and Mr. Levy says he is almost too busy. I looked over their line and I may place an order with them, although they ain't got too good an assortment, Mr. Perlmutter." "Far be it from me to knock a competitor's line, Mr. Lowenstein," Morris commented, "but I honestly think they get their designers off of Ellis Island." "Well," Mr. Lowenstein conceded, "of course I don't say they got so good an assortment what you have, Mr. Perlmutter, but they got a liberal credit policy." "Why, what's the matter with _our_ credit policy?" Morris asked. "Nothing," Mr. Lowenstein replied. "Only a merchant like me, what wants to enlarge his business, needs a little better terms than thirty days. Ain't it? I'm improving my departments all the time, and I got to buy more fixtures, lay in a better stock and even build a new wing to my store building. All this costs money, Mr. Perlmutter, as you know, and contractors must be paid strictly for cash. Under the circumstances, I need ready money, and, naturally, the house what gives me the most generous credit gets my biggest order." "Excuse me for a moment," Morris broke in, "I think I hear the telephone." He walked to the rear of the store, where the telephone bell had been trilling impatiently. "Hello," he said, taking the receiver off the hook. "Hello," said a voice from the other end of the line. "Is this Potash & Perlmutter?" "It is," said Morris. "Well, this is Garfunkel & Levy," the voice went on. "We understand Mr. Lowenstein, of Galveston, is in your store. Will you please and call him to the 'phone for a minute?" "This ain't no public pay station," Morris cried. "And besides, Mr. Lowenstein just left here." He banged the receiver onto the hook and returned at once to the front of the store. "Now, Mr. Lowenstein," he said, "what can I do for you?" And two hours later Mr. Lowenstein left the store with the duplicate of a twenty-four-hundred-dollar order in his pocket, deliveries to commence within five days; terms, ninety days net. "Well, Abe," Morris said the next day as his partner, Abe Potash, entered the show-room, "how are you feeling to-day?" "Mean, Mawruss," Abe replied. "I feel mean. The doctor says I need a rest. He says I got to go away to the country or I will maybe break down." "Is _that_ so?" said Morris, deeply concerned. "Well, then, you'd better go right away, before you get real serious sick. Why not fix it so you can go away to-morrow yet?"