Miss Holzmeyer glanced at the price ticket.
"Twenty-eight dollars," she replied, with an indignant glare.
Elkan whistled incredulously.
"You don't tell me," he said. "I always heard it that the expenses is high uptown, but even if the walls was hung mit diamonds yet, Miss Holzmeyer, your bosses wouldn't starve neither. Do you got maybe a dress for twenty-eight dollars which it is worth, anyhow, twenty-five dollars?"
This last jibe was too much for Miss Holzmeyer.
"Mis-ter Lap-in!" she howled, and immediately a glazed mahogany door in an adjoining partition burst open and Max Lapin appeared on the floor of the showroom.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Miss Holzmeyer sat down in the nearest chair and fanned herself with her pocket handkerchief.
"This man insulted me!" she said; whereat Max Lapin turned savagely to Elkan.
"What for you are insulting this lady?" he demanded as he made a rapid survey of Elkan's physical development. He was quite prepared to defend Miss Holzmeyer's honour in a fitting and manly fashion; but, during the few seconds that supervened his question, Max reflected that you can never tell about a small man.