Mr. Trimp flashed his double deck of girlish-pearlish teeth. When Mr.
Trimp smiled Greuze might have wanted to paint his lips for a
child-study. Women tightened up about the throat and dared to wonder
whether he wore a chest-protector and asafetida bag. Old ladies in
street-cars regarded him through the mist of memories, and as if their
motherly fingers itched to run through the heavy yellow hemp of his
hair. There was that in his smile which seemed to provoke hand-painted
sofa-pillows and baby-ribboned coat-hangers, knitted neckties, and
cross-stitch slippers. Once he had posed for an Adonis underwear
advertisement.

"Hello, baby! Did you wait up for your old man?"

Goldie regarded her husband with eyes that ten months of marriage had
dimmed slightly. Her lips were thinner and tighter and silent.

"I think we landed a sucker to-night for fifty shares, kiddo. Ain't so
bad, is it? And so you waited up for your tired old man, baby?"

"No!" she said, the words sparking from her lips like the hiss of a hot
iron when you test it with a moist forefinger. "No; I didn't wait up. I
been out with you--painting the town."

"I couldn't get home for supper, hon. Me and Cutty--"

"You and Cutty! I wasn't born yesterday!"

"Me and Cutty had a sucker out, baby. He'll bite for fifty shares sure!"

"Gee!" she flamed at him, backing round the rocker from his amorous
advances. "Gee! If I was low enough to be a crook--if I was low enough
to try and make a livin' sellin' dead dirt for pay dirt--I'd be a
successful crook, anyway; I'd--"

"Now, Goldie, hon! Don't--"

"I wouldn't leave my wife havin' heart failure every time McCasky passes
the door--I wouldn't!"

"Now, don't fuss at me, Goldie. I'm tired--dog-tired. I got some money
comin' in to-morrow that'll--"

"That don't go with me any more!"

"Sure I have."

"I been set out on the street too many times before on promises like
that; and it was always after a week of one of these here slow jags. I
know them and how they begin. I know them!"

"'Tain't so this time, honey. I been--"

"I know them and how they begin, with your sweet, silky ways. I'd rather
have you come staggering home than like this--with your claws hid.
I--I'm afraid of you, I tell you. I ain't forgot the night up at
Hinkey's. You haven't been out with Cutty no more than I have. You been
up to the Crescent, where the Red Slipper is dancing this week, you--"

Mr. Trimp swayed ever so slightly--slightly as