with
no time for nonsense. I tell you the shirtwaist business 'ain't been so
good that--"

"You--you can't fool me with that poor talk, papa. Everybody knows you
get a bigger business each year. You can't fool me that way."

Tears burst and flowed over her words, and her head burrowed deeper.
Across her prostrate form Simon Binswanger nodded to his wife in rising
perplexity.

"Fine come-off, eh, Carrie?"

"Miriam, ach, Miriam, come here to mamma."

"Aw, take her, pa, if she's so crazy to go. It'll be slack time between
now and when I get back from my territory. Max has got pretty good run
of the office these days. Take her across, pa, and get it out of her
system. Quit your crying, kid."

Mr. Binswanger waggled a crooked finger in close proximity to his son's
face. "Du! Du mit a big mouth! Is it because you sell for the house such
big bills I can afford to run me all over Europe! A few more accounts
like Einstein from Cleveland you can sell for me, and then we can go
bankrupt easier as to Europe. Du mit a big mouth!"

"Pa, ain't you ever going to get that out of your system? My first bad
account and--"

"You'm a dude! That's all I know, you'm a dude! Right on my back now I
got on your old shirts and dressed like a king I feel."

"I'm done, pa! I'm done!"

"Ach, Miriam, don't cry so. Here, look up at mamma. Maybe, Miriam, if
you ask your papa once more he will--"

"I tell you, no. What Mark Lillianthal does and what my son can say so
easy makes nothing with me. I'm glad as I got a home to stay in."

Above her daughter's bowed head Mrs. Binswanger regarded her husband
through watery eyes. "She ain't so wrong, Simon. I tell you I got the
first time to hear you come out and say to your family, 'Well, this year
we do something big.' The bigger you get in business the littler on the
outside you get, Simon. Always you been the last to do things."

"And, papa, everybody--"

"Everybody makes no difference with me. I don't work for the steamship
company. For two thousand dollars what such a trip costs I can do better
as Europe."

"I--I just wish I hadn't ever been born."

A sudden tear found its way down Mrs. Binswanger's billowy cheek. "You
hear, Simon, your own daughter has to wish she had never got born."

She drew her daughter upward to her wide bosom, and through the loose
basque percolated the warm tears.

"'Sh-h-h-h, Miriam, don't you cry."

"Ach, now, Carrie--"

"I tell you, Simon, I 'ain't been