He leaned across the table toward the little huddle of her figure, the gentle villanelle of his emotions writ frankly across his features. "Pearlie--" "She'll be all right in a minute, Mr. Teitlebaum--like her papa she is, always so afraid of a little sickness." "Pearlie, ain't you going to look at me?" She sprang from his light hand on her shoulder, and the tears grew to little globules, trembled, fell. Then a sudden rod of resolution straightened her back. "We--I been lying to you, Max; I ain't--sick!" "Poil!" "I--I think I know, little Pearlie!" "Poil!" "No, no; it's best we tell the truth, mamma." "Ya, ya. Oh, my--" "We--we're in big trouble, Max. Business trouble. The store, ever--ever since the traction--it ain't been the same." "I know, little Pearlie. I--" "Wait a minute, Max. We--we ain't what you maybe think we are. To-morrow two weeks we got to meet creditors and extension notes. We can't pay with even twenty cents on the dollar. We're gone under, Max!" "I--" "We ain't got it to meet them with. Papa--if a man like papa couldn't make it go nobody could--" "Such a man, Mr. Teitlebaum, so honest, so--" "Shh-h-h, mamma." "It's our--my fault, Max. He was afraid even last year, but I--even then I was the one that wanted the expense of the city. Mamma didn't want it--he didn't--it--was me--I--I--" "My fault, too, Poil--_ach, Gott_, my fault! How I drove him! How I drove him!" "We--we got to go back home, Max. We're going back and help him to begin over again. We--we been driving him like a pack of wolves. He never could refuse nobody nothing. If he thought mamma wanted the moon up he was ready to go for it; even when we was kids he--" "_Ach_, my husband, such a good provider he's always been! Such a husband!" "Always we got our way out of him. But to- night--to-night, Max, right here in this chair all _little_ he looked all of a sudden. So little! His back all crooked and all tired and--and I done it, Max--I ain't what you think I am--oh, God, I done it!" "_Ach_, my--" "Don't cry, mamma. 'Sh-h-h-h! Ain't you ashamed, with Mr. Teitlebaum standing right here? You must excuse her, Max, so terrible upset she is. 'Sh-h-h-h, mamma--'sh-h-h-h! We're going back home and begin over again. 'Sh-h-h-h! You won't have to dress for supper no more like you hate. We'll be home in time for your strawberry-preserves season, mamma, and rhubarb stew out of the garden, like papa loves. 'Sh-h-h-h! You must excuse her, Max--you must excuse me, too, to-night--you--come some other time--please." "Pearlie!" He came closer to the circle of light, and his large features came out boldly. "Pearlie, don't you cry neither, little girl--" "I--I ain't." "All what you tell me I know already." "Max!" "Mr. Teitlebaum!"