, Becky."

Isadore relaxed to the couch once more, pillowed his head on interlaced
hands, yawned to the ceiling, blew two columns of cigarette-smoke
through his nostrils, and watched them curl upward.

"This ain't so worse, pa."

"I go me to bed."

"For a little while, Julius, can't you stay up? At nine o'clock comes
Max to see Poil. I always say a young man thinks more of a young girl
when her parents stay in the room a minute."

Isadore fitted his thumbs in his waistcoat armholes and flung one
reclining limb over the other.

"What Max Teitlebaum thinks of Pearlie I already know. To-day he invited
me to lunch with him."

"Izzy!"

"Izzy! Why you been so close-mouthed?"

Mrs. Binswanger threw her short, heavy arm full length across the
table-top and leaned toward her son, so that the table-lamp lighted her
face with its generous scallop of chin and exacerbated the concern in
her eyes.

"You had lunch to-day with Max Teitlebaum, and about Poil you talked!"

"That's what I said."

Miss Binswanger leaned forward in her low rocker, suddenly pink as each
word had been a fillip to her blood, and a faint terra-cotta ran under
the olive of her skin, lighting it.

"Like--fun--you--did!"

"All right then, missy, I'm lyin', and won't say no more."

"I didn't mean it, Izzy!"

"Izzy, tell your sister what he said."

"Well, right to my face she contradicts me."

"Please, Izzy!"

"Well, he--he likes you, all righty--"

"Did he say that about me, honest, Izz?"

Her breath came sweet as thyme between her open lips, and her eyes could
not meet her mother's gaze, which burned against her lids.

"See, Poil! Wake up a minute, papa, and listen. When I mentioned Max
Teitlebaum, papa, you always said a grand boy like one of the Teitlebaum
boys, with such prospects, ain't got no time for a goil like our Poil.
Always I told you that you got to work up the appetite. See, papa, how
things work out! See, Poil! What else did he have to say, Izzy--he likes
her, eh?"

Isadore turned on his side and flecked a rim of ash off his cigarette
with a manicured forefinger.

"Don't get excited too soon, ma. He didn't come out plain and say
anything, but I guess a boy like Max Teitlebaum thinks we don't need a
brick house to fall on us."

"What you mean, Izzy?"

"What I mean? Say, ain't it as plain as the nose on your face? You
don't need two brick houses to fall on you, do you?"

Mrs. Binswanger admitted to a mental phthisi