or you like I
never had for any girl! I want it that mamma should have a good girl
like you to make it easy for her. I can't say what I want to say, Ruby;
I don't say it so good, but--a girl could do worse than me--not, Ruby?"

Miss Cohn's fingers closed over the shoe-hook at her belt until the
knuckles sprang out whiter than her white skin.

"Oh, Mr. Ginsburg! What would your mamma say? A young man like you, with
a grand business and all--you could do for yourself what you wanted. If
you was only a drummer like Simon; but--"

A wisp of Miss Cohn's hair, warm as sunset, brushed close to Mr.
Ginsburg's lips; he groped for her hand, because the mist of his
emotions was over his eyes.

"Ruby, I invite you to get married; that's--all I want is that mamma
should have it good with me always like she has it now. She's getting
old, Ruby, and I always say what's the difference if I humor her? When
she don't want to move in an apartment with a marble hall and built-in
wash-tubs, I say: All right; we stay over the store. When she don't like
it that I put a telephone in, I tell her I got a friend in the business
put it in for nothing. You could give it to her as good as a
daughter--not, Ruby?"

"She's a grand woman, Abie; she--"

"Ruby!"

"Oh! Oh!"

In the eventide quiescence of the shop, with the heliotrope of early
dusk about them, and passers-by flashing by the plate-glass window in a
stream that paused neither for love nor life, Mr. Ginsburg leaned over
and gathered Miss Cohn in his arms, pushed back the hair from her
forehead and kissed her thrice--once on each lowered eyelid, and once on
her lips, which were puckered to resemble a rosebud.

"Abie, you--you mustn't! We're in the store!"

"I should worry!"

"What will--what will they say?"

"For what they say I care that much!" cried Mr. Ginsburg, with
insouciance. "Ain't I got a ruby finer than what they got in the finest
jewelry store?"

Miss Cohn raised her smooth cheek from the rough weft of Mr. Ginsburg's
sleeve.

"What your mamma will say I don't know! You that could have Beulah
Washeim or Birdie Harburger, or any of those grand girls that are grand
catches--I ain't bringing you nothing, Abie."

"We're going to make it grand for mamma, Ruby--that's all I want you to
bring me. She'll have it so good as never in her life. You are going to
be a good daughter to her--not, Ruby?"

"Yes, Abe. If we take a bigger apartment she can have an outside room,
and