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Say, am I seeing things?" "What'll I do, Kess? What'll I do?" "I tell you that you can't get away with it, girl. The old man's getting childish; they'll have to have him restrained. Why, the woman he was married to for twenty years, Lenie Goldstone, never even seen a skirt-dance. I remember once he brought her to New York and then wouldn't let her see a cabaret show.
A smile spread over his face slowly, and he clasped his hands in an embrace about his knees. "You don't tell me!" "Oh, I.W., please " "Our little girl. S-ay, how poor Lenie would have loved this happiness! Our little girl engaged to get married!" "I.W., she " "We do the right thing by them eh, Hattie? Furnish them up as many rooms as they want. But, s-ay, they don't need help from us.
Always about nothing, too. 'Lenie, I used to say to her, just to quiet her, 'it was worry killed a Maltese cat; don't let it kill you. That child is all right, Hattie. What if he does like her pretty well? Worse could happen." "No, it couldn't! No!" "Why not? He 'ain't seen her since a child, and all of a sudden he comes West and finds in front of him an eye-opener." "He's twice her age more!"
"It's always hard, Hattie, for good women like you and like poor Lenie was to understand. It's better you don't. You shouldn't even think about it." "But, I.W. " "If I didn't know Leon Kessler was no worse than ninety-nine good husbands in a hundred, you think I would let him lay a finger on the apple of my eye? I don't understand, Hattie; all of a sudden this evening, you're so worked up.
"He's a fine fellow, Mrs. Kaufman. With his uncle to help 'em, they got, let me tell you, a better start as most young ones!" She rose, holding on to the desk. "I I " she said. "What?" "Lena," he uttered, very softly. "Lena, Mr. Vetsburg?" "It 'ain't been easy, Lenie, these years while she was only growing up, to keep off my lips that name. A name just like a leaf off a rose.
"Ain't it fair, Lenie, in love and war and business a man has got to scheme for what he wants out of life? Long enough it took she should grow up. I knew all along once those two, each so full of life and being young, got together it was natural what should happen. Mrs. Kaufman! Lenie! Lenie!"
Prom two flights up, in through the open door and well above the harsh sound of scrubbing, a voice curled down through the hallways and in. "Mrs. Kaufman, ice-water ple-ase!" "Lenie," he said, his singing, tingling fingers closing over her wrist. "Mrs. Kauf-man, ice-water, pl " With her free arm she reached and slammed the door, let her cheek lie to the back of his hand, and closed her eyes.
"Maybe to-morrow, if you didn't back out, it would sound finer by the ocean, Lenie, but it don't need the ocean a man should tell a woman when she's the first and the finest woman in the world. Does it, Lenie?" "I I thought Ruby. She " "He's a good boy, Leo is, Lenie. A good boy what can be good to a woman like his father before him. Good enough even for a fine girl like our Ruby, Lenie our Ruby!"
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