Max Meltzer leaned to the breath of her laughter as if he would fill his lungs with it. "Gee! but you're a cute little lady when you laugh like that." "Say, and ain't you the freshie! Just because you're going to be promoted to buyer for your department won't get your picture in the Sunday supplement. No white-goods buyer I know of ever had to build white marble libraries or present a bread-line to the city to get rid of his pin-money." "I bet you was a cute little black-eyed, red-cheeked little youngster, alrighty." "I wasn't so worse. Like I tell Dee Dee, the way she's held me down and indoors evenings, it's a wonder a kid like me grew up with any pep at all." "Poor little lady!" "It's like Dee Dee says, though. I never was cut out for life behind the counter. Gee! I'd soak my pillow in gasolene every night in the week if it would make me dream I'm automobiling." "Poor little lady!" "Say, ain't it hot? With the Opening on Monday, they better get the fans working. Last year three girls keeled. Honest, sometimes I think I'd rather spend the summer under the daisies out on the hill than down here in this basement." "Don't I wish I had an auto to take you spinning in to-night." "You ought to see the flier a friend of mine has got. A Mercury Six with a limousine top like a grand-opera box." "Your--your--friend?" "Yes. He's that slick-looking, little fat fellow that's a cousin to Mamie Grant up in the ready-to-wears. He was down here talking to me the other day." "I seen him." "Gee! you ought to feel yourself in his Mercury Six. 'Lemme die,' I says to him the last time I was in it. 'Just lemme close my eyes right in here and die happy,' I says, cuddled up in the red-leather seat with a cornucopia of daffodils tickling my nose and a street-car full of strap-hangers riding along-side of us." "I--I guess if you got swell friends like that, a boat excursion down the river 'ain't got much of a sound for you." "He says he's got a launch in summer--" "Honest, Miss Sadie, I--I just been trying for the better part of two weeks to ask permission if I could come and call on you some evening, Miss Sadie, but--" "Whoops! ain't he the daredevil!" "The first boat of the season, Miss Sadie, a swell new one they call the _White Gull_, goes down to Coney to-night, and, it being real springtime, and you feeling kind of full of it, I thought maybe, it being the first boat of the season, maybe you would take a river ride this grand April night, Miss Sadie." Her glance slanted toward him, full of quirks. "My aunt Dee Dee, Mr. Meltzer, she's right strict with me. She don't think I ought to keep company with any boys that don't come to see me first at my house."