ther time you found me--" His bluster had gone.
He was not sure of his voice. Even these few words had been hard. He did
not try more.

"There, there, there!" she whispered. "It's all right, everything's all
right. Your mother's got you right here and she ain't ever going to let
you go--never going to let you go."

She was patting his head in rhythm with her rocking as she snuggled and
soothed him. There was silence for another interval. Then she began to
croon a song above him as she rocked, though the lyric was plainly an
improvisation.

"Did he have his poor old mother going for a minute? Yes, he did. He had
her going for a minute, for a minute. Yes, he had her going good for a
minute.

"But oh, he won't ever fool her very long, very long, not very long,
because he can't fool his dear old mother very long, very long; and he
can bet on that, bet on that, so he can, bet a lot of money on that,
that, that!" Her charge had grown still again, but she did not relax her
tightened arms.

"Say," he said at last.

"Well, honey."

"You know those benches where we wait for the cars?"

"Do I know them?" The imperative inference was that she did.

"I looked at the store yesterday. The sign down there says 'Himebaugh's
dignified system of deferred payments.'"

"Yes, yes, I know."

"Well, I saw another good place--it says 'The house of lucky rings'--you
know--rings!"

"Sure, I know. That's all right."

"Well," he threw off the arms and got to his feet. She stood up then.

"Well, all right!"

They were both constrained now. Both affected an ease that neither felt.
It seemed to be conceded without words that they must very lightly skirt
the edges of Merton Gill's screen art. They talked a long tune volubly
of other things: of the girl's illness from which she now seemed
most happily to have recovered, of whether she was afraid of him--she
professed still to be--of the new watch whose beauties were newly
admired when it had been adjusted to its owner's wrist; of finances they
talked, and even, quite simply, of accessible homes where two could live
as cheaply as one.

It was not until he was about to go, when he stood at the door while the
girl readjusted his cravat, smoothed his hair, and administered a final
series of pats where they seemed most needed, that he broke ever so
slightly through the reserve which both had felt congealing about a
certain topic.

"You know," he said, "I happened to remember the title