do so, even if that Ganef Sammet would make twenty engagement parties
for 'em. Did you see the samovar I gave 'em?"

He pointed proudly to a silver-plated object, and Gurin glanced at it
scornfully.

"Potash & Perlmutter gives 'em solid silver," he commented--"a wide
dish."

"Sure I know," Klinger said, "thin like paper."

"_Aber_ sterling," Gurin insisted, and Klinger made a telling diversion.

"I suppose you sent 'em something sterling also," he said.

"Me?" Gurin exclaimed. "Why should I buy presents? I am a retailer
myself, Mr. Klinger, so I sent 'em some flowers."

"I don't see 'em nowhere," Sol retorted.

"They're over there," B. Gurin said, making a sweeping gesture in the
general direction of the mantelpiece, and as he did so a bass voice
sounded at his elbow.

"Put out my eye why don't you?" cried Abe Potash, and then he recognized
his assailant.

"Say, what are you doing here?" he demanded.

B. Gurin looked coldly at his creditor and shrugged his shoulders.