a wife that has made such demands on
you, but I guess you think it's a comfort that a mother should hear that
in society her daughter has to take a back seat."

"When she 'ain't got a front seat she should take a second seat. I don't
need no seat. I know worse young men as Sollie Spitz and Eddie Greenbaum
what comes here to see her."

"Just the same you--you said to me the other night, papa, that I never
seem to meet young men like Adolph Gans, fellows who are in business for
themselves."

"Ja, but I--"

"Well, where do you think Elsa Bergenthal met Adolph, but on the ship?"

"You hear, Simon: Moe Bergenthal, who sells shirtwaists for you right
this minute, can afford to send his daughter to Europe."

"Ja, I guess that's why he sells shirtwaists for me instead of for
himself."

"See, papa, she--"

"That's right, get him cornered, ma! Go to it, Miriam!"

"Du, du good-for-nothings dude, du!"

"Be a sport, pa!"

"Ach, Simon--"

"Ach, you women make me sick! In the old country, I tell you, I got no
business. All the Eyetalians what I want to see I can see down on Cherry
Street--for less as two thousand dollar too."

"Why--why, that's no way to learn about 'em, papa. You just ought to see
me take a back seat when Lilly Lillianthal gets out her post-cards and
begins telling about the real ones."

Mrs. Binswanger took on a private tone, peering close into her husband's
face. "You hear that, Simon? Mark Lillianthal, what failed regular like
clockwork before he moved up-town, his daughter can make our Miriam feel
small. You hear that, Simon?"

His daughter's arms were soft about his neck, tight, tighter. "Papa,
please! For a couple of thousand we can take that beau-tiful trip I
showed you in the booklet. Card-rooms on the steamer, papa. Hannah told
me all summer her father played pinochle in Germany, father, right
outdoors where they drink beer and eat rye-bread sandwiches all day. In
Germany we can even stop at Dusseldorf where you were born, papa--just
think, papa, where you were born! In Italy we can make Ray look at the
pictures and statues, and all day you can sit outdoors and--and play
cards, papa. Just think, papa, by the time you have to buy us swell
clothes for Arverne I tell you it will cost you more. All Lilly
Lillianthal needed for Europe, mamma, was a new blue suit."

"Go way--go way with such nonsense, I tell you!" "And how you and papa
can rest up, mamma." "She's right, Simon; such a trip won