Part 2 (1/2)
”So you hired it a lady bookkeeper,” Aaron commented. ”What did you done that for, Max?”
”Well, why not?” Max retorted. ”We got with her first cla.s.s, A Number One references, Aaron, and although she only come this morning, she is working so smooth like she was with us six months already. For my part it is all the same to me if we would have a lady bookkeeper, or a bookkeeper.”
”I know,” Aaron continued, ”but ladies in business is like salt in the cawfee. Salt is all right and cawfee also, but you don't got to hate salt exactly, y'understand, to kick when it gets in the cawfee. That's the way with me, Max; I ain't no lady-hater, y'understand, but I don't like 'em in business, except for saleswomen, models, and buyers, y'understand.”
”But that Miss Meyerson,” Sam broke in, ”she attends strictly to business, Aaron.”
”Sure, I know, Sam,” Aaron replied. ”Slaps me on the back yet when I am coughing.”
”Well, she meant it good, Aaron,” Sam said.
”Sure, that's all right,” Aaron agreed. ”Sure, she meant it good. But it's the _idee_ of the thing, y'understand. Women in business always means good, Max, but they b.u.t.t in too much.”
”Other people b.u.t.ts in, too,” Max added.
”I don't say they don't, Max. But you take it me, for instance. When something happens which it makes me feel bad, Max, I got to swear, y'understand. I couldn't help it. And, certainly, while I don't say that swearing is something which a gentleman should do, especially when there's a lady, y'understand, still, swearing a little sometimes is good for the _gesund_. Instead a feller should make another feller a couple blue eyes, Max, let him swear. It don't harm n.o.body, and certainly n.o.body could sue you in the courts because you swear at him like he could if you make for him a couple blue eyes. But you take it when there is ladies, Max, and then you couldn't swear.”
”Sure, I know,” Max rejoined; ”and you couldn't make it a couple blue eyes on a feller when ladies would be present neither, Aaron. It wouldn't be etty-kit.”
”Me, I ain't so strong on the etty-kit,” Sam broke in at this juncture; ”but I do know, Max, that we are fooling away our whole morning here.”
Aaron Pinsky rose.
”Well, boys,” he said, ”I got to be going. So I wish you luck with your new boy.”
Once more he looked affectionately toward the rear of the room where Philip industriously wielded the feather duster, and then made his way toward the elevator. As he pa.s.sed Miss Meyerson's desk she looked up and beamed a farewell at him. He caught it out of the corner of his eye and frowned absently.
”I wish you better,” Miss Meyerson called.
”Thanks very much,” Aaron replied, as the floor of the descending elevator made a dark line across the ground-gla.s.s door of the shaft. He half paused for a moment, but his shyness overcame him.
”Going down!” he yelled, and thrusting his hat more firmly on his head he disappeared into the elevator.
Three days afterward Aaron Pinsky again visited Zaretsky & Fatkin, and as he alighted from the elevator Miss Meyerson came out of her office with a small package in her hand.
”Oh, Mr. Pinsky,” she said, ”I've got something for you.”
”Me?” Aaron cried, stopping short in his progress toward the showroom.
”All right.”
”You know I couldn't get to sleep the other night thinking of the way you were coughing,” she continued. ”Every time I closed my eyes I could hear it.”
Evidently this remark called for comment of some kind, and Aaron searched his brain for a suitable rejoinder.
”That's nice,” he murmured at last.
”So I spoke to my cousin, Mrs. Doctor Goldenreich, about it,” she went on, ”and the doctor gave me this medicine for you. You should take a tablespoonful every four hours, and when it's all gone I'll get you some more.”
She handed the bottle to Aaron, who thrust it into his overcoat-pocket.