"You can believe it oder not, Mr. Lubliner," Max continued; "but Ringentaub got in his store a couple Jacobean chairs, which they are two hundred and fifty years old already. And them chairs you could buy at a big sacrifice yet."
Elkan and Yetta exchanged puzzled glances, and Elkan even tapped his forehead significantly.
"They was part of a whole set," Max went on, not noticing his employer's gesture; "the others Ringentaub sold to a collector."
Elkan flipped his right hand.
"A collector is something else again," he said; "but me I ain't no collector, Max, Gott sei Dank! I got my own business, Max, and I ain't got to buy from two hundred and fifty years old furniture."
"Why not?" Max asked. "B. Gans is got his own business, too, Mr. Lubliner, and a good business also; and he buys yet from Ringentaub—only last week already—an angry cat cabinet which it is three hundred years old already."
"An angry cat cabinet?" Elkan exclaimed.
"That's what I said," Max continued; "'angry' is French for 'Henry' and 'cat' is French for 'fourth'; so this here cabinet was made three hundred years ago when Henry the Fourth was king of France—and B. Gans buys it last week already for five hundred dollars!"
Therewith Max commenced a half-hour dissertation upon antique furniture which left Yetta and Elkan more undecided than ever.
"And you are telling me that big people like B. Gans and Andrew Carnegie buys this here antics for their houses?" Elkan asked.