"Can I help it when I go to the country and meet Mr. Leavitt?" "Ruby!" Mr. Ginsburg slid himself along the bench until a customer for a AA misses' last would have fitted with difficulty between, and looked at her as ancient Phidias must have looked at his Athene. "Ruby--I can't keep it back no longer--since you went away on your vacation I've had it inside of me, but I never knew what it was till you walked back this morning. First, I thought I was sick with the heat; but now I know it was you--" "What--what you--" "I--I invite you to get married, Ruby. I got a feeling for you like I never had for any girl! I want it that mamma should have a good girl like you to make it easy for her. I can't say what I want to say, Ruby; I don't say it so good, but--a girl could do worse than me--not, Ruby?" Miss Cohn's fingers closed over the shoe-hook at her belt until the knuckles sprang out whiter than her white skin. "Oh, Mr. Ginsburg! What would your mamma say? A young man like you, with a grand business and all--you could do for yourself what you wanted. If you was only a drummer like Simon; but--" A wisp of Miss Cohn's hair, warm as sunset, brushed close to Mr. Ginsburg's lips; he groped for her hand, because the mist of his emotions was over his eyes. "Ruby, I invite you to get married; that's--all I want is that mamma should have it good with me always like she has it now. She's getting old, Ruby, and I always say what's the difference if I humor her? When she don't want to move in an apartment with a marble hall and built-in wash-tubs, I say: All right; we stay over the store. When she don't like it that I put a telephone in, I tell her I got a friend in the business put it in for nothing. You could give it to her as good as a daughter--not, Ruby?" "She's a grand woman, Abie; she--" "Ruby!" "Oh! Oh!" In the eventide quiescence of the shop, with the heliotrope of early dusk about them, and passers-by flashing by the plate-glass window in a stream that paused neither for love nor life, Mr. Ginsburg leaned over and gathered Miss Cohn in his arms, pushed back the hair from her forehead and kissed her thrice--once on each lowered eyelid, and once on her lips, which were puckered to resemble a rosebud. "Abie, you--you mustn't! We're in the store!" "I should worry!" "What will--what will they say?" "For what they say I care that much!" cried Mr. Ginsburg, with insouciance. "Ain't I got a ruby finer than what they got in the finest jewelry store?" Miss Cohn raised her smooth cheek from the rough weft of Mr. Ginsburg's sleeve. "What your mamma will say I don't know! You that could have Beulah Washeim or Birdie Harburger, or any of those grand girls that are grand catches--I ain't bringing you nothing, Abie." "We're going to make it grand for mamma, Ruby--that's all I want you to bring me. She'll have it so good as never in her life. You are going to be a good daughter to her--not, Ruby?"