ild, he's not marrying a rich girl."

"A girl don't have to--be rich to get married right."

"You'll have as good as mamma can afford to give it to her girl."

"It--it would be different if Lester's uncle and all wasn't in the Acme
Club crowd, and if I hadn't got in with all that bunch. It's the last
expense I'll ever be to you, mamma."

"Oh, baby, don't say that!"

"I--me and Lester--Lester and me were talking, mamma--when the
engagement's announced next week--a reception--"

"We can clear out this room, move the bed out of gramaw's room into
ours, and serve the ice-cream and cake in--"

"Oh, mamma, I don't mean--that!"

"What?"

"Who ever heard of having a reception _here_! People won't come from
town way out to this old--cabbage patch. Even Gertie Wolf with their big
house on West Pine Boulevard had her reception at the Walsingham Hotel.
You--we--can't expect Mark Haas and all the relations--the
Sinsheimers--and--all to come out here. I'd rather not have any."

"But, Selene, everybody knows we ain't millionaires, and that you got in
with that crowd through being friends at school with Amy Rosen. All the
city salesmen and the boys on Washington Avenue, even Mark Haas himself,
that time he was in the store with Lester, knows the way we live. You
don't need to be ashamed of your little home, Selene, even if it ain't
on West Pine Boulevard."

"It'll be--your last expense, mamma. The Walsingham, that's where the
girl that Lester Goldmark marries is expected to have her reception."

"But, Selene, mamma can't afford nothing like that."

Pink swam up into Miss Coblenz's face, and above the sheer-white collar
there was a little beating movement at the throat, as if something were
fluttering within.

"I--I'd just as soon not get married as--as not to have it like other
girls."

"But, Selene--"

"If I--can't have a trousseau like other girls and the things that go
with marrying into a--a family like Lester's--I--then--there's no use.
I--I can't! I--wouldn't!"

She was fumbling now for a handkerchief against tears that were
imminent.

"Why, baby, a girl couldn't have a finer trousseau than the old linens
back yet from Russia that me and gramaw got saved up for our girl--linen
that can't be bought these days. Bed-sheets that gramaw herself carried
to the border, and--"

"Oh, I know. I knew you'd try to dump that stuff on me. That old
worm-eaten stuff in gramaw's chest."

"It's hand-woven, Selene, with--