"Sure! Gawd! I knew Joe when I was making sateen daisies in a artificial-flower loft on Twenty-second Street; and him and my brother was clerkin' in a cigar store on Twenty-third and running a neat little book on the side." "A book?" "Yes, dearie--a pretty picture-book." "Joe never told me." "He ain't always been the thirty-dollar-a-week kid he is now--take it from me. Just the same, you can thank me for interdoocing you to the sharpest little fellow that's selling tickets on the sidewalks of this great and wicked city." "I always tell him he ought to save more--taxis and all he has to have, that spendy he is!" "Sidewalk speculatin' is a good pastime if you're sharp enough; and I always tell Joe he's got a edge on him like a razor." "Like a razor! Aw, Loo, you talk like he was a barber." "Sure, he's that sharp! Take Harry now: he's as slick as a watermelon-seed when it comes to pickin' a sheet of music with a whistle in it; but put him in a game like Joe's, with the law cross-eyed from winkin' and frownin' at the same time, and he'd lose his nerve." "It ain't a game, Loo. Joe says there ain't a reason why a fellow can't sell a theater ticket at a profit, just like Harry sells a sheet of music. Sidewalks are free for all." "Leave it to Joe to stretch the language like a rubber band. His middle name is Gutta-Percha." "He was your friend first." "He is yet, Beauty--even if you have grabbed him. I like him--he's one good sport; but with Joe's gift for tongue-work he could make a jury believe a Bowery jewelry store ought to have a _habeas corpus_ for every body it snatches; he could rob a cradle and get a hero medal for it." "I--sometimes I--I don't know how to take him, Loo. We've been goin' together steady now; and sometimes I think he--he likes me, and sometimes I think he don't." "Take it from me, you got him going. I never knew him to take a five-evenings-a-week lease on anybody's time." "Six." "Six! For all I know, you--you're keepin' things from me. Lemme see your left hand--whatta you blushing for, Beauty? Whatta you blushing for?" "Aw, Loo!" "Say, how does this jacket look, Ess? Half them judges over there at the Poppy watch your clothes more'n your feet." "Swell!" "Well, is this where me and Harry exit, Beauty?" "Yeh; you go ahead, Loo. I--I'll tell Joe you and Harry went on ahead to-night." "I gotta half bottle of Hartley's Heart's Ease at home, Ess. Tell your old lady to have it on me. Don't you worry, kiddo. I used to have heart trouble so bad I'd breathe like a fish at a shore dinner--and look at me now! I'll bring it to-morrow--a tablespoonful before meals." "Good night, Loo. I'll see you Monday." "Put on a little more color there, Doll, or you'll never get nothin' out of him. You look as scared as an oyster. Lordy, you can handle him easy! Lemme know what happens. S'long! S'long!" "Good night, Loo!"