nine o'clock before
`` Also , '' Gans said as he appended his neat signature to the letter , `` I wish you and Dishkes luck , Elkan ; and keep up the good work about the antique furniture . Even when you would get stuck with a reproduction instead of a genuine piece once in a while , if it looks just as good as the original and no one tells you differently , understand me , you feel just as happy . '' Thus encouraged , Elkan went home that evening full of a determination to acquire all the antique furniture his apartment would hold ; and he and Yetta sat up until past midnight conning the pages of a heavy volume on the subject , which Yetta had procured from the neighbouring public library . Accordingly Elkan rose late the following morning , and it was almost nine o'clock before he reached his office and observed on the very top of his morning mail a slip of paper containing a message in the handwriting of Sam , the office boy . `` A man called about Jacobowitz , '' it read , and Elkan immediately rang his deskbell . `` What Jacobowitz is this ? '' he demanded as Sam entered , and the office boy shrugged .