t the
scallops of strong hair that came down over the singed place of Sara's
brow whitened that year; although Mosher, who was beginning to curve
slightly of the years as he walked, as if a blow had been struck him
from behind, never more than heard the wind before the storm.

Listen in on the following:

The third year that Nicholas practiced law, junior member in the Broad
Street firm of Leavitt & Dilsheimer, he took to absenting himself from
dinner so frequently, that across the sturdy oak dining table, laid out
in a red-and-white cloth, gold-band china not too thick of lip, and a
cut-glass fern dish with cunningly contrived cotton carnations stuck in
among the growing green, Sara, over rich and native foods, came more and
more to regard her husband through a clutch of fear.

"I tell you, Mosher, something has come over the boy. It ain't like him
to miss _gefuelte_-fish supper three Fridays in succession."

"All right, then, because he has a few more or less _gefuelte_-fish
suppers in his life, let it worry you! If that ain't a woman every
time."

"_Gefuelte_ fish! If that was my greatest worry. But it's not so easy to
prepare, that you should take it so much for granted. _Gefuelte_ fish, he
says, just like it grew on trees and didn't mean two hours' chopping on
my feet."

"Now, Sara, was that anything to fly off at? Do I ever so much as eat
two helpings of it in Gussie's house? That's how I like yours better!"

"Gussie don't chop up her onions fine enough. A hundred times I tell her
and a hundred times she does them coarse. Her own daughter-in-law, a
girl that was raised in luxury, can cook better as Gussie. I tell you,
Mosher, I take off my hat to those Berkowitz girls. And if you should
ask me, Ada is a finer one even than Leo's Irma."

The sly look of wiseacre wizened up Mosher's face.

"Ada!" she says. "The way you pronounce that girl's name, Sara, it's
like every tooth in your mouth was diamond filled out of Berkowitz's
jewelry firm."

Quite without precedent Sara's lips began to quiver at this pleasantry.

"I'm worried, Mosher," she said, putting down a forkful of untasted food
that had journeyed twice toward her lips. "I don't say he--Nicky--I
don't say he should always stay home evenings when Ada comes over
sometimes with Leo and Irma, but night after night--three times whole
nights--I--Mosher, I'm afraid."

In his utter well-being from her warming food, Mosher drank deeply and,
if it must be