"You
must be mistaken."

"Well, maybe it wasn't you, Abe," Mr. Bramson went on; "but if it wasn't
you it was your partner there, that Mawruss Perlmutter. Yesterday I seen
him up to the Heatherbloom Inn, Abe, and I assure you, Abe, I was never
before in my life in such a high-price place--coffee and cake, Abe,
believe me, one dollar and a quarter."

He paused to let the information sink in. "But what could I do?" he
asked. "I was walking through the side entrance of the Prince William
Hotel yesterday, Abe, just on my way down to see you, when I seen it a
lady sitting on a bench, looking like she would like to cry only for
shame for the people. Well, Abe, I looked again, Abe, and would you
believe it, Abe, it was Miss Atkinson, what used to work for me as
saleswoman and got a job by The Golden Rule Store, Elmira, as assistant
buyer, and is now buyer by Moe Gerschel, The Emporium, Duluth."

Abe nodded; he knew what was coming.

"So, naturally, I asks her what it is the matter with her, and she says
Potash & Perlmutter had an appointment to take her out in an oitermobile
at two o'clock, and here it was three o'clock already and they ain't
showed up yet. Potash & Perlmutter is friends of mine, Miss Atkinson, I
says, and I'm sure something must have happened, or otherwise they would
not of failed to be here. So I says for her to ring you up, Abe, and
find out. But she says she would see you first in--she wouldn't ring you
up for all the oitermobiles in New York. So I says, well, I says, if you
don't want to ring 'em up _I'll_ ring 'em up; and she says I should mind
my own business. So then I says, if _you_ wouldn't ring 'em up and _I_
wouldn't ring 'em up I'll do _this_ for you, Miss Atkinson: You and me
will go for an oitermobile ride, I says, and we'll have just so good a
time as if Potash & Perlmutter was paying for it. And so we did, Abe. I
took Miss Atkinson up to the Heatherbloom Inn, and it costed me thirty
dollars, Abe, including a cigar, which I wouldn't charge you nothing
for."

"Charge _me_ nothing!" Abe cried. "Of course you wouldn't charge me
nothing. You wouldn't charge me nothing, Mr. Bramson, because I wouldn't
_pay_ you nothing. I didn't ask you to take Miss Atkinson out in an
oitermobile."

"I know you didn't, Abe," Mr. Bramson replied firmly, "but either you
will pay for it or I will go over to Lapidus & Elenbogen's and _they_
will pay for it. They'll be only too glad to pay for it, Abe, because I