Elkan made no reply, but walked to the centre of the showroom.
"Mr. Polatkin," he said, "could I speak to you a few words something?"
Polatkin jumped to his feet.
"Before you speak to me a few words something," he said, "I want to ask you what the devil you are telling me lies that you pay Mrs. Feinermann five dollars a week board?"
"What are you bothering about that for now?" Scheikowitz interrupted. "And, anyhow, you could see by the way the feller is red like blood that he lies to you."
"Furthermore," Feinermann added, "my wife complains to me last night that young loafer takes her uptown yesterday on a wild fool's errand, understand me, and together they get pretty near kicked out of a drygoods store."
"She told you that, did she?" Elkan cried.
"That's what I said!" Feinermann retorted.
"Then, if that's the case, Feinermann," Elkan replied, "all I can say is, I am paying your wife five dollars a week board schon six months already, and if she is holding out on you a dollar and a half a week that's her business—not mine."
"Don't make things worser as they are, Lubliner," Flaxberg advised. "You are in bad, anyhow, and lying don't help none. What did you done with the samples you took away from here?"