that
if I was you, Mawruss, I would get this here archy-teck and B. Rashkin,
and also your brother-in-law, Ferdy, together, and I would make 'em an
offer of settlement for, say, three thousand dollars, Mawruss. Because
the way I figure it out, this thing would stand you in as much money as
that and a whole lot of worry, too."

"You shouldn't be so generous with your advice, Abe," Morris retorted.

"Oh, I don't charge you nothing for it, Mawruss," Abe said, as he turned
to the "Arrival of Buyers" column, and, for lack of appropriate
rejoinder, Morris snorted indignantly and banged the show-room door
behind him.

For the remainder of the afternoon Abe's face wore a malicious grin. It
was there when Morris left to keep his appointment at Henry D. Feldman's
office, and when he returned four hours later the malice, if anything,
had intensified.

"Well, Mawruss," Abe cried, "I suppose you fixed it all up?"

"It don't go so quick, Abe," Morris replied. His manner was as cheerful
as only that of a man who has struggled hard to repress a fit of violent
profanity can be--for the meeting at Henry D. Feldman's office had been
fraught with many nerve-racking incidents. _Imprimis_, there had been
Feldman's retainer, a generous one, and then had come the discussion of
the building-loan agreement with Milton M. Sugarman, attorney for the
I. O. M. A.

Feldman assured Morris that it was customary for the borrower to pay the
fees of the attorney for the lender, incidental to drawing and recording
the necessary papers, and Morris had also learned that the high premiums
of insurance for the building to be erected would come out of his
pocket. Moreover, he had seen B. Rashkin credited with commissions for
bringing about Morris' purchase of the lot, and for the first time he
had ascertained that he also owed B. Rashkin two hundred and fifty
dollars commission for procuring a building loan from the I. O. M. A.

So far he reckoned that his investment exceeded B. Rashkin's by a
thousand dollars, and when he considered that B. Rashkin would be his
own superintendent of construction, while he, Morris, would be obliged
to hire Ferdy Rothschild, at a compensation of seven hundred and fifty
dollars, to perform that same office for him, Abe's advice appeared too
sound to be pleasant.

"No, Abe," he said, "it don't go so quick. I got another appointment for
next week."

Abe grunted.

"All I got to say, Mawruss," he commented, "you shouldn'