He rose wearily to his feet and was half-way to the stairs in the rear of the store when Abe Potash entered.
"Hallo, Leon!" Abe called. "Don't be in a rush. I want to talk to you."
Leon returned to the show-room and shook hands limply with Abe. It was a competitor's, not a customer's, shake.
"Well, Abe," he said, "how's business?"
"If we got a good designer like you got, Leon," Abe replied, "we would——"
"A good designer!" Barney broke in. "Why——"
His involuntary disclaimer ended almost where it began with a furtive, though painful, kick from his elder brother.
"A good designer, Abe," Leon went on hastily, "is a big asset, and Louis Grossman is a first-class A Number One designer. We done a tremendous spring business through Louis. I suppose you heard about our style forty-one-fifty?"
"Them Arverne Sacques," he said. "Yes, I heard about it from everybody I meet. He must be a gold-mine, that Louis Grossman."