against me. I only say it to show you how a mother maybe don't
understand as well as a father how natural a few wild oats can be."

"L-Leo didn't have 'em."

"Leo ain't a genius. He's just a good boy."

"I--I worry so!"

"Sara, I ask you, wouldn't I worry, too, if there was a reason? God
forbid if his nonsense should lead to really something serious, then
it's time to worry."

Sara Turkletaub dried her eyes, but it was as if the shadow of
crucifixion had moved forward in them.

"If just once, Mosher, Nicky would make it easy for me, like Leo did for
Gussie. When Leo's time comes he marries a fine girl like Irma Berkowitz
from a fine family, and has fine children, without Gussie has to cry her
eyes out first maybe he's in company that--that--"

"I don't say, Sara, we didn't have our hard times with your boy. But we
got results enough that we shouldn't complain. Maybe you're right. With
a boy like Leo, a regular good business head who comes into the firm
with us, it ain't been such a strain for Gussie and Aaron as for us with
a genius. But neither have they got the smart son, the lawyer of the
family, for theirs. _We_ got a temperament in ours, Sara. Ain't that
something to be proud of?"

She laid her cheek to his lapel, the freshet of her tears past staying.

"I--I know it, Mosher. It ain't--often I give way like this."

"We got such results as we can be proud of, Sara. A genius of a lawyer
son on his way to the bench. Mark my word if I ain't right, on his way
to the bench!"

"Yes, yes, Mosher."

"Well then, Sara, I ask you, is it nice to--"

"I know it, Papa. I ought to be ashamed. Instead of me fighting you to
go easy with the boy, this time it's you fighting me. If only he--he was
the kind of boy I could talk this out with, it wouldn't worry me so.
When it comes to--to a girl--it's so different. It's just that I'm
tired, Mosher. If anything was to go wrong after all these years of
struggling for him--alone--"

"Alone! Alone! Why, Sara! Shame! Time after time for punishing him I was
a sick man!"

"That's it! That's why so much of it was alone. I don't know why I
should say it all to-night after--after so many years of holding in."

"Say what?"

"You meant well, God knows a father never meant better, but it wasn't
the way to handle our boy's nature with punishments, and a quick temper
like yours. Your way was wrong, Mosher, and I knew it. That's why so
much of it was--alone--so much that I had to