on't know it!"

Kammerman seized on the incident as a way of escape from criticising
Jassy's trio.

"That reminds me, Lubliner," he said. "Give me your business card if you
have one with you. I must tell Mr. Dalzell, my cloak buyer, to look over
your line. I'm sure, with a designer of Mr. Merech's artistic instincts
working for you, you will be making up just the highgrade line of goods
we need."

* * * * *

One year later, the usual crowd of first-nighters lounged in the lobby
of the Siddons Theatre during the intermission between the second and
third acts of M. Sidney Benson's newest musical comedy, "Marjory from
Marguery's," and commented with enthusiasm on the song hit of the
show--"My Bleriot Maid." A number of the more gifted even whistled the
melody, skipping the hard part and proceeding by impromptu and
conventional modulation to the refrain, which had been expressly
designed by its composer, Milton Jassy, so as to present no technical
difficulties to the most modest whistler.

Through this begemmed and piping throng, Kammerman and Volkovisk elbowed
their way to the street for a breath of fresh air; and as they reached
the sidewalk Kammerman heaved a sigh of relief.

"What a terrible melody!" he ejaculated.

"But the plot ain't bad," Volkovisk suggested, and Kammerman grinned
involuntarily.

"To be exact, the two plots aren't bad," he said. "It's made up of two
old farces. One of them is '_Embrassons nous, Duval_,' and the other
'_Un Garcon, de chez Gaillard_.'"

"But the costumes are really something which you could call beautiful!"
Volkovisk declared.

"Merech approved the costumes too," Kammerman agreed with a laugh. "He
left after the first act; and he said that if you endured it to the end
you were to be sure to tell Jassy the colorings were splendid!" He lit a
cigarette reflectively. "That man is a regular shark for coloring!" he
said. "It seems that when I first met him that night he was only an
assistant cutter; but Elkan Lubliner made him designer very shortly
afterward--and it has proved a fine thing for both of them. I understand
we bought fifteen thousand dollars' worth of goods from them during the
past year!"

"He deserved all the good luck that came to him," Volkovisk cried; and
Kammerman placed his hand affectionately on his protege's shoulder.

"There's a special Providence that looks after artists," he said as they
reentered the theatre, "whether they pain