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He handed Morris a black cigar, and as they started for the cutting-room they gave vent to their pent-up emotions in great clouds of comforting smoke. The next fortnight was fraught with so many disagreeable experiences for Morris that he appeared to age visibly, and once more Abe was moved to express his sympathy.
At this juncture Abe rose to his feet and hurried indignantly toward the cutting-room, where Morris joined him five minutes later. "Say, Abe," he said, "while me and Minnie was out with Fixman on Saturday I got a fine idee for an oitermobile wrap." Abe turned and fixed his partner with a terrible glare. "Tell it to Kleebaum," he roared.
"Oh, Mr. Perlmutter," she said, "I was scared stiff, and Mr. Margulies, the expressman, pretty near carried me up to the roof and we stays there till the fireman says we should come down." "And where's Margulies?" Morris asked. "He's gone back to the cutting-room," Miss Cohen replied.
"So, Mawruss," he concluded, "I went down to Gunst & Baumer's building, Mawruss; but instead of going to Gunst & Baumer, Mawruss, I went one flight lower down to Hill, Arkwright & Thompson's, Mawruss, and I didn't buy it Interstate Copper, Mawruss, but I bought it instead silk foulards, Mawruss seventy-five hundred dollars' worth for twenty-five hundred dollars, and it's laying right now up in the cutting-room."
Two weeks sped quickly by, during which Morris safeguarded the diamonds with the utmost zest and enjoyment, and at length the settling day arrived. Morris was superintending the unpacking of piece goods in the cutting-room when Abe darted upstairs. "Mawruss," he hissed, "Hymie Kotzen is downstairs."
Once more Aaron Shellak was entertaining the cutting-room staff with a pianissimo rendition of Godard's Berceuse; but even as Abe tiptoed across the showroom to crush the performance with an explosive "Koosh!" the melody ceased. "That's a genu-ine Amati," Aaron said, "and you could see for yourself inside here is the label." Abe stopped short.
"Come, then, and see if we cannot find something more to your fancy in the cutting-room," laughed Monsieur; and Miselle willingly followed through the green yard, and up some stairs to a sunny chamber, or rather hall, lined on either hand with a row of busy workmen, each seated behind a whirring wheel, to which he held the surface of whatever article he was engaged in cutting, or rather grinding.
Indeed, Abe had hardly returned to the show-room before Hymie entered the store door. "Where's Mawruss?" he asked. "Up in the cutting-room," Abe replied. "Good!" Hymie cried. "Now look'y here, Abe, I got a proposition to make it to you." He tugged at the diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand and laid it on a sample-table.
He walked to the rear of the store, where the telephone bell was jingling. "Miss Cohen," he said to the bookkeeper as he passed the office, "answer the 'phone. I'm going upstairs to speak to Mr. Perlmutter." He proceeded to the cutting-room, where Morris was superintending the unpacking of piece-goods.
At the end of the noisy cutting-room was a small chamber, hardly more than a closet, called the engraving-room, and bearing the same relation to the former as the crypt where the cellarer jealously stores his Tokay for the palate of a Kaiser holds to the acres of arches where lies the vin ordinaire.
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