"I'll give you her address if you don't tell everybody. You know how it is when you begin to recommend a dressmaker--up in their prices they go, and that's all the thanks you get." "You are safe with me, Mrs. Katzenstein." "Come here, Birdie! Turn round for Mrs. Adler--only twelve dollars to make with findings!" "I'll take her my blue cloth," said Mrs. Adler. "You won't regret it. Just tell her I sent you. If you want you can have the address, too, Mrs. Gump." "I got a compliment for you about the dress you wore last night, Miss Birdie. Wonderful! No trump! This morning at breakfast Marcus said lots about your pretty dress and pretty ways; and for him to say that is a lot; not ten words can I get out of him, as a rule." "I wish you could hear Birdie, too, Mrs. Gump! Believe me, she thinks he's a fine boy--and how hard that girl is to suit you wouldn't believe it!" "Aw, mamma!" "Change partners, ladies!" Birdie hurried out into the dining-room; a flush branded her cheeks--Daphne fleeing from Apollo could not have been more deliciously agitated. "Tillie," she directed, "you can make the coffee now and put the finger-rolls on." A snowy round table was spread beneath a large, opaline dome of lights, which showered over the feast like a spray of stars; and in the center a mammoth cut-glass bowl of fruit, overflowing its sides with trailing bunches of hothouse grapes, and piled to a fitting climax of oranges, peeled in fanciful flower designs; fat bananas, with half the skin curled backward; and apples so firm and red that they might have been lacquered. The guests filed in. "We haven't got much, ladies--Tillie, bring in some of the chairs from the parlor--but Birdie says it isn't style to have such big lunches any more. Sit right down here, Mrs. Gump, between me and Birdie. Now, ladies, help yourselfs and don't be bashful. Start the sardines round, Batta." "What a pretty centerpiece, Mrs. Katzenstein!" "Do you like it, Mrs. Kronfeldt? Birdie made it when the whip-stitch first came out. We got the doilies, too." "I think it's good for a girl to be so practical," said Mrs. Gump, squeezing an arc of a lemon over her sardine. "If I had a daughter she should know how to do things round the house, even if she didn't have to use it." "I'm not the kind to brag on my children; but, if I do say so myself, my girls can turn their hands to anything. If the day ever comes--God forbid!--when they should need it they'll know how." "Exactly." "When my Ray got engaged she made every monogram for her trousseau. I can prove it by Batta what a trousseau that girl had--and she made every monogram for every piece. She never comes home with the children to visit that she don't say: 'Mamma, thank Heaven, Abe is doing so grand and I don't need to--but there ain't a woman in Kansas City can beat me on housekeeping.'" "This is delicious grape-jelly, Mrs. Katzenstein."