She drew her daughter upward to her wide bosom, and through the loose basque percolated the warm tears. "'Sh-h-h-h, Miriam, don't you cry." "Ach, now, Carrie--" "I tell you, Simon, I 'ain't been a wife that has made such demands on you, but I guess you think it's a comfort that a mother should hear that in society her daughter has to take a back seat." "When she 'ain't got a front seat she should take a second seat. I don't need no seat. I know worse young men as Sollie Spitz and Eddie Greenbaum what comes here to see her." "Just the same you--you said to me the other night, papa, that I never seem to meet young men like Adolph Gans, fellows who are in business for themselves." "Ja, but I--" "Well, where do you think Elsa Bergenthal met Adolph, but on the ship?" "You hear, Simon: Moe Bergenthal, who sells shirtwaists for you right this minute, can afford to send his daughter to Europe." "Ja, I guess that's why he sells shirtwaists for me instead of for himself." "See, papa, she--" "That's right, get him cornered, ma! Go to it, Miriam!" "Du, du good-for-nothings dude, du!" "Be a sport, pa!" "Ach, Simon--" "Ach, you women make me sick! In the old country, I tell you, I got no business. All the Eyetalians what I want to see I can see down on Cherry Street--for less as two thousand dollar too." "Why--why, that's no way to learn about 'em, papa. You just ought to see me take a back seat when Lilly Lillianthal gets out her post-cards and begins telling about the real ones." Mrs. Binswanger took on a private tone, peering close into her husband's face. "You hear that, Simon? Mark Lillianthal, what failed regular like clockwork before he moved up-town, his daughter can make our Miriam feel small. You hear that, Simon?" His daughter's arms were soft about his neck, tight, tighter. "Papa, please! For a couple of thousand we can take that beau-tiful trip I showed you in the booklet. Card-rooms on the steamer, papa. Hannah told me all summer her father played pinochle in Germany, father, right outdoors where they drink beer and eat rye-bread sandwiches all day. In Germany we can even stop at Dusseldorf where you were born, papa--just think, papa, where you were born! In Italy we can make Ray look at the pictures and statues, and all day you can sit outdoors and--and play cards, papa. Just think, papa, by the time you have to buy us swell clothes for Arverne I tell you it will cost you more. All Lilly Lillianthal needed for Europe, mamma, was a new blue suit." "Go way--go way with such nonsense, I tell you!" "And how you and papa can rest up, mamma." "She's right, Simon; such a trip won't hurt us. I tell you we don't get younger each day." He regarded his wife with eyes rolled backward. "That's what I need yet, Carrie, all of a sudden you take sides away from me. Always round your little finger your children could always wind themselves."