putting those slippers away, Birdie; you just lie
round and take it easy this morning. When a girl's going to have company
in the evening she should rest up--me and Tillie can do this little
work."

Birdie wrapped herself in a crimson kimono plentifully splotched with
large pink and blue and red and green chrysanthemums and snuggled into a
white wicker rocking-chair. Her lips, warmly curved like a child's,
were parted in a smile.

"I don't want breakfast," she announced. "Irma Friedman quit it and lost
five pounds in two weeks."

"Papa and me were saying last night, Birdie, we aren't in a hurry to get
rid of you; but such a young man as Marcus Gump any girl can be lucky to
get. Aunt Batta said she heard for sure Loeb Brothers are going to make
him manager of their new factory--think once, manager and three thousand
a year!--just double his salary! Think of putting a young man like him
in that big Newark factory!"

"It's surely grand; but for what does it have to be in a place like
Newark?"

"Papa says that boy put March Hare boys' pants on the market for the
Loebs. How grand for his mother and all, her a widow, to have such a
son! Wasn't I right to invite her this afternoon?"

"I'm the last one to say a word against Marcus. You ought to heard them
last night talking on the side about him and his new position he might
get--just grand! Jeanette's got a new stitch, mamma. It's not like
eyelet or French, but sort of between the two, and grand for
centerpieces. I could embroider a dresser-cover in a week."

"I thought I'd have sardines this afternoon instead of cold tongue. For
why should I make Mrs. Cohen feel bad that we don't buy at their
delicatessen?"

"I'll fix the cut-glass bowl with fruit for the center of the table."

"It's like papa and me said last night, Birdie--a girl makes no mistake
when she follows her parents' advice. Marcus Gump's own mother told me
when I was introduced to her at Hirsch's yesterday afternoon, you're the
first girl he ever took out more than two or three times."

Birdie snuggled deeper in her chair and stretched her arms with the
gesture of Aurora greeting the day.

"Mamma," she said, softly, "what do you think he--he said I looked like
last night?"

"What?"

"He said--he said--"

Mrs. Katzenstein paused in her dusting.

"He--said--Aw, mamma, I can't go telling it--so silly it sounds."

"_Ach!_ For nonsense I got no time--such silliness for two grown-up
children! That