at than this in town, has
there?"

"No, Max."

"The best none too good, eh?"

"No, Max."

"Just the same stuff comes here that I send up to my mother's flat, eh?
All the drinks and all the clothes you want and a servant in the house
as good as my mother's own, eh? No kick coming, eh, girl?"

"You--you wouldn't, Max--you wouldn't ditch me. What could I do?
Nothing--nothing. I--I can't hire out as a scrubwoman, I--"

"Come, come now, girl, you're pretty slick, but you--you don't quite
slide. What about that thirty-five hundred you got down in your
jeans--eh? Them thirty-five hundred in the Farmers' Savings Bank--eh?
Eh?"

"Max!"

"Hah! Knocked you off your pins that time, didn't I? I found your
bank-book one morning, kiddo--found it on the floor right next to the
dresser--"

"Max, I--Out of my checks I--I saved--I--"

"Sure! Gad! I ain't kicking about it, girl. Glad for you! Glad you got
it, girl, only don't try to tell me you can't take care of yourself in
this world alrighty, girl. Any old time you can't! Gad! thirty-five
hundred she snitches out of her allowance in six years, lives on the
fat of the land, too, and then tries to bamboozle me that she's flat.
Thirty-five hundred in six years. Gad! I got to hand it to you there,
kiddo; I got to hand it to you!"

"You can have it back, Max. I--I was going to surprise you when I had
five thousand. I--"

"Gad! I don't want your money, girl. It's yours. You're fixed for life
on it. I'm even going to hand you over a couple of thou extra to show
you that I'm no cheap sport. I won't have a woman breathing can say I
ain't white as silk with her."

"Max, you--you're killing me! Killing me! Killing me!"

"Now, now, Mae, if I was you I wouldn't show my hand so. I don't want to
hurt you, girl. It ain't like I got any but the finest feelings for you.
You're all right, you are. You are."

"Then, Max, for God's sake--"

"But what are you going to do about it? What the hell is anybody going
to do about it? You ain't no baby. You know what life is. And you know
that the seams has got to show on one of the two sides and it ain't your
fault you got turned on the under side. But you should worry, girl!
You're fixed. And I'm here to tell you I'm going to hand you on top of
the two thou this here little flat just as it stands, Mae. Just as it
stands, piano and all. I just guess you got a kick coming!"

Her hands flew to her bosom as if the steel of his words had slipped