“Come, Schmuel,” said my mother, “I got to say something with you.” And she gave my father a pull in the other room and closed the door. I felt they was trying not to look on me, and was shrinking away from the shame that was throwed on me. “Och, what’s the matter with me! Nothing can come between David and me. His uncle ain’t everything,” I said, trying to pull up my head. I sat myself down by the table to cool down my nervousness. “Brace yourself up,” I said to myself, jumping up from the chair and beginning to walk around again. “Nothing has happened. Stop off nagging yourself.” Just then I hear loud voices through the wall. I go nearer. Ut, it’s his uncle! The plaster from the wall was broken on our side by the door. “Lay your ear in this crack, and you can hear plain the words,” I say to myself. “What’s getting over you? You ain’t that kind to do such a thing,” I say. But still I do it. Oi weh, I hear the uncle plainly! “What’s all this mean, these neighbors? Who’s the pretty girl what made such eyes on you?” “Ain’t she beautiful? Do you like her?” I hear David. “What? What’s that matter to you?” “I’ll marry myself to her,” says David. “Marry! Marry yourself into that beggar house! Are you crazy?” “A man could get to anywhere with such a beautiful girl.” “Koosh! Pretty faces is cheap like dirt. What has she got to bring you in for your future? An empty pocketbook? A starving family to hang over your neck?” “You don’t know nothing about her. You don’t know what you’re saying. She comes from fine people in Russia. You can see her father is a learned man.” “Ach! You make me a disgust with your calf talk! Poverty winking from every corner of the house! Hunger hollering from all their starved faces! I got too much sense to waste my love on beggars. And all the time I was planning for you an American family, people which are somebodies in this world, which could help you work up a practice! For why did I waste my good dollars on you?” “Gott! Ain’t David answering?” my heart cries out. “Why don’t he throw him out of the house?” “Perhaps I can’t hear him,” I think, and with my finger-nails I pick thinner the broken plaster. I push myself back to get away and not to do it. But it did itself with my hands. “Don’t let me hear nothing,” I pray, and yet I strain more to hear. The uncle was still hollering. And David wasn’t saying nothing for me. “Gazlen! You want to sink your life in a family of beggars?” “But I love her. We’re so happy together. Don’t that count for something? I can’t live without her.” “Koosh! Love her! Do you want to plan your future with your heart or with your head? Take for your wife an ignorant shopgirl without a cent! Can two dead people start up a dance together?” “So you mean not to help me with the office?”