he middle of the week. It's Friday," she corrected him.

He went on: "I know what he keeps coming to see you for, but for God's
sake don't you think of marrying an old tout and gambler like him."

"He isn't old, and he isn't a gambler any more," she significantly
retorted.

"What do you mean?"

"He's sold out--clean as a whistle."

"Don't you believe it! It's a trick to get you to think better of him.
Bert, don't you dare to go back on me," he cried out, warningly--"don't
you dare!"

The girl suddenly ceased smiling, and asserted herself. "See here, Ed,
you'd better not try to boss me. I won't stand for it. What license have
you got to pop in here every few minutes and tell me what's what? You
'tend to your business and you'll get ahead faster."

He stammered with rage and pain. "If you throw me down--fer that--old
tout, I'll kill you both."

The girl looked at him in silence for a long time, and into her brain
came a new, swift, and revealing concept of his essential littleness and
weakness. His beauty lost its charm, and a kind of disgust rose in her
throat as she slowly said, with cutting scorn:

"If you really meant that!--but you don't, you're only talking to hear
yourself talk. Now you shut up and run away. This is no place for
chewing the rag, anyway--this is my busy day."

For a moment the man's face expressed the rage of a wild-cat and his
hands clinched. "Don't you do it--that's all!" he finally snarled.
"You'll wish you hadn't."

"Run away, little boy," she said, irritably. "You make me tired. I don't
feel like being badgered by anybody, and, besides, I'm not mortgaged to
anybody just yet."

His mood changed. "Bertie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be fresh. But
don't talk to me that way, it uses me all up."

"Well, then, stop puffing and blowing. I've troubles of my own, with
mother sick and a new cook in the kitchen."

"Excuse me, Bert; I'll never do it again."

"That's all right."

"But it riled me like the devil to think--" he began again.

"Don't think," she curtly interrupted; "cut hair."

Perceiving that she was in evil mood for his plea, he turned away so
sadly that the girl relented a little and called out:

"Say, Ed!" He turned and came back. "See here! I didn't intend to hurt
your feelings, but this is one of my touchy days, and you got on the
wrong side of me. I'm sorry. Here's my hand--now shake, and run."

His face lightened, and he smiled, displaying his fine, white teeth.