are watching us--the people! Smile at me, Poil, like we was
joking. Izzy, if you leave this table now I--I can't stand it! Laugh,
Poil, like we was having our little fun among us."

The women exchanged the ghastly simulacrum of a smile, and the meal
resumed in silence. Only small beads sprang out on the shiny surface of
Mr. Binswanger's head like dewdrops on the glossy surface of leaves, and
twice his fork slipped and clattered from his hand.

"So excited you get right away, Julius. Nervous as a cat you are."

"I--I ain't got the strength no more, Becky. Pink sleeping-tablets I got
to take yet to make me sleep. I ain't got the strength."

"'Shh-h-h, Julius; don't get excited. In the spring we go home. You
don't want, Julius, to spoil everything right this minute. Ain't it
enough the way our Poil has come out in these five months? Such a grand
time that goil has had this winter. Do you want that the Teitlebaums
should know all our business and spoil things?"

"I--I wish sometimes that name I had never heard in my life. In my days
a young girl--"

"'Shh-h-h, Julius; we won't talk about it now--we change the subject."

"I--"

"Look over there, will you, Poil? Always extras the Teitlebaums have on
their table. Paprica, and what is that red stuff? Chili sauce! Such
service we don't get. Pink carnations on their table, too. To-morrow at
the desk I complain. Our money is just as good as theirs."

Miss Binswanger raised her harried eyes from her plate and smiled at her
mother; she was like a dark red rose, trembling, titillating, and with
dewy eyes.

"Don't stare so, mamma."

"Izzy, are you going to stay home to-night? One night it won't hurt you.
Like you run around nights to dance-halls ain't nothing to be proud of."

"Now start something, mamma, so pa can jump on me again. If Pearlie and
Max are going to use the front room this evening, what shall I do? Sit
in a corner till he's gone and I can go to bed?"

"I should care if he goes to dance-halls or not. What I say, Becky,
don't make no difference to my son. Take how I begged him to hold on his
job!"

"If you're done your dessert wait till we get up-stairs, papa. The
dining-room knows already enough of our business."

Miss Binswanger pushed back from the table to her feet. Tears rose in a
sheer film across her eyes, but she smiled with her lips and led the
procession of her family from the gabbling dining-room, her small, dark
head held upward by the check-