mean, Loo?"

"He's hipped on you, girl. I know Joe Ullman like I know the floor-plan
of this theater."

"Honest, Loo, do you think so?"

"Sure! Gawd! I knew Joe when I was making sateen daisies in a
artificial-flower loft on Twenty-second Street; and him and my brother
was clerkin' in a cigar store on Twenty-third and running a neat little
book on the side."

"A book?"

"Yes, dearie--a pretty picture-book."

"Joe never told me."

"He ain't always been the thirty-dollar-a-week kid he is now--take it
from me. Just the same, you can thank me for interdoocing you to the
sharpest little fellow that's selling tickets on the sidewalks of this
great and wicked city."

"I always tell him he ought to save more--taxis and all he has to have,
that spendy he is!"

"Sidewalk speculatin' is a good pastime if you're sharp enough; and I
always tell Joe he's got a edge on him like a razor."

"Like a razor! Aw, Loo, you talk like he was a barber."

"Sure, he's that sharp! Take Harry now: he's as slick as a
watermelon-seed when it comes to pickin' a sheet of music with a whistle
in it; but put him in a game like Joe's, with the law cross-eyed from
winkin' and frownin' at the same time, and he'd lose his nerve."

"It ain't a game, Loo. Joe says there ain't a reason why a fellow can't
sell a theater ticket at a profit, just like Harry sells a sheet of
music. Sidewalks are free for all."

"Leave it to Joe to stretch the language like a rubber band. His middle
name is Gutta-Percha."

"He was your friend first."

"He is yet, Beauty--even if you have grabbed him. I like him--he's one
good sport; but with Joe's gift for tongue-work he could make a jury
believe a Bowery jewelry store ought to have a _habeas corpus_ for every
body it snatches; he could rob a cradle and get a hero medal for it."

"I--sometimes I--I don't know how to take him, Loo. We've been goin'
together steady now; and sometimes I think he--he likes me, and
sometimes I think he don't."

"Take it from me, you got him going. I never knew him to take a
five-evenings-a-week lease on anybody's time."

"Six."

"Six! For all I know, you--you're keepin' things from me. Lemme see your
left hand--whatta you blushing for, Beauty? Whatta you blushing for?"

"Aw, Loo!"

"Say, how does this jacket look, Ess? Half them judges over there at the
Poppy watch your clothes more'n your feet."

"Swell!"

"Well, is this where me and Harry exit, Beauty?"

"Yeh; you go