h I
haven't said, 'Alma, I wish I had the heart to go back housekeeping.'"

"I knew it!"

"But I ask you, Louis, what's been the incentive? Without a man in the
house I wouldn't have the same interest. That first winter after my
husband died I didn't even have the heart to take the summer-covers off
the furniture. You can believe me or not, but half the time with just me
to eat it, I wouldn't bother with more than a cold snack for supper and
every one knew what a table we used to set. But with no one to come home
evenings expecting a hot meal--"

"You poor little woman. I know how it is. Why, if I used to so much as
telephone that I couldn't get home for supper right away I knew my
little mother would turn out the gas under what was cooking and not eat
enough herself to keep a bird alive."

"Housekeeping is no life for a woman alone. On the other hand, Mr.
Latz--Louis--Loo, on my income, and with a daughter growing up, and
naturally anxious to give her the best, it hasn't been so easy. People
think I'm a rich widow and with her father's memory to consider and a
young lady daughter, naturally I let them think it, but on my
seventy-four hundred a year it has been hard to keep up appearances in a
hotel like this. Not that I think you think I'm a rich widow, but just
the same, that's me every time. Right out with the truth from the
start."

"It shows you're a clever little manager to be able to do it."

"We lived big and spent big while my husband lived. He was as shrewd a
jobber in knit underwear as the business ever saw, but--well, you know
how it is. Pneumonia. I always say he wore himself out with
conscientiousness."

"Maybe you don't believe it, Carrie, but it makes me happy what you just
said about money. It means I can give you things you couldn't afford for
yourself. I don't say this for publication, Carrie, but in Wall Street
alone, outside of my brokerage business, I cleared eighty-six thousand
last year. I can give you the best. You deserve it, Carrie. Will you say
yes?"

"My daughter, Loo. She's only eighteen, but she's my shadow--I lean on
her so."

"A sweet, dutiful girl like Alma would be the last to stand in her
mother's light."

"She's my only. We're different natured. Alma's a Samstag through and
through, quiet, reserved. But she's my all, Louis. I love my baby too
much to--to marry where she wouldn't be as welcome as the day itself.
She's precious to me, Louis."

"Why, of course. You would