Potash & Perlmutter: Their Copartnership Ventures and AdventuresGlass, Montague
General
Potash & Perlmutter: Their Copartnership Ventures and Adventures
Glass, Montague
Clothing trade -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Jewish fiction; Jews -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
"Yes, the Board of Trustees of the Home for Female Orphans of Veterans,
at Oceanhurst, Long Island. I am the superintendent--Miss Taylor--and I
had an appointment at Lapidus & Elenbogen's to inspect a thousand
blue-serge suits. Lapidus & Elenbogen were the successful bidders, you
know. And there was really no reason for Mr. Tuchman's hospitality,
since I had nothing whatever to do with their receiving the contract,
nor could I possibly influence the placing of any future orders."
Morris nodded slowly. "So you ain't Miss Atkinson, then, lady?" he said.
The lady laughed again. "I'm very sorry if I'm the innocent recipient
under false pretenses of a lunch and an automobile ride," she said,
rising. "And you'll excuse me if I must hurry away to keep my
appointment at Lapidus & Elenbogen's? I have to catch a train back to
Oceanhurst at five o'clock, too."
She held out her hand and Morris took it sheepishly.
"I hope you'll forgive me," she said.
"I can't blame _you_, lady," Morris replied as they went toward the
front door. "It ain't _your_ fault, lady."
He held the door open for her. "And as for that Max Tuchman," he said,
"I hope they send him up for life."
Abe stood in the show-room doorway as Morris returned from the front of
the store and fixed his partner with a terrible glare. "Yes, Mawruss,"
he said, "you're a fine piece of work, I must say."
Morris shrugged his shoulders and sat down. "That's what comes of not
minding your own business," he retorted. "I'm the inside, Abe, and
you're the outside, and it's your business to look after the out-of-town
trade. I told you I don't know nothing about this here lady-buyer
business. You ordered the oitermobile. I ain't got nothing to do with
it, and, anyhow, I don't want to hear no more about it."
A pulse was beating in Abe's cheeks as he paced up and down before
replying.
"_You_ don't want to hear no more about it, Mawruss, I know," he said;
"but _I_ want to hear about it. I got a _right_ to hear about it,
Mawruss. I got a right to hear it how a man could make such a fool out
of himself. Tell me, Mawruss, what name did you ask it for when you went
to the clerk at the Prince William Hotel?"
Morris jumped to his feet. "Lillian Russell!" he roared, and banged the
show-room door behind him.
For the remainder of the day Morris and Abe avoided each other, and it
was not until the next morning that Morris ventured to address his
partner.
"Did you get it any word from Marcus Bramson?" he asked.
"I ain't seen nor heard nothing," Abe replied. "I can't understand it,
Mawruss; the man promised me, mind you, he would be here sure. Maybe you
seen him up to the hotel, Mawruss?"
"I seen him," Morris replied, "but not at the hotel, Abe. I seen him up
at that Heatherbloom Inn, Abe--with a lady."
"With a lady?" Abe cried. "Are you sure it was a lady, Mawruss? Maybe
she was a relation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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