She dug away at the red plush with the hatpin, picking out little bits and dropping them over the edge. I could see she was bracing herself to put me wise to the whole trouble. There's a time comes when things aren't going right, and you've had all you can stand, when you have got to tell somebody about it, no matter who it is. 'I hate New York,' she said getting it out at last with a rush. 'I'm scared of it. It--it isn't fair Charlie bringing me here. I didn't want to come. I knew what would happen. I felt it all along.' 'What do you think will happen, then?' She must have picked away at least an inch of the red plush before she answered. It's lucky Jimmy, the balcony waiter, didn't see her; it would have broken his heart; he's as proud of that red plush as if he had paid for it himself. 'When I first went to live at Rodney,' she said, 'two years ago--we moved there from Illinois--there was a man there named Tyson--Jack Tyson. He lived all alone and didn't seem to want to know anyone. I couldn't understand it till somebody told me all about him. I can understand it now. Jack Tyson married a Rodney girl, and they came to New York for their honeymoon, just like us. And when they got there I guess she got to comparing him with the fellows she saw, and comparing the city with Rodney, and when she got home she just couldn't settle down.' 'Well?' 'After they had been back in Rodney for a little while she ran away. Back to the city, I guess.' 'I suppose he got a divorce?' 'No, he didn't. He still thinks she may come back to him.' 'He still thinks she will come back?' I said. 'After she has been away three years!' 'Yes. He keeps her things just the same as she left them when she went away, everything just the same.' 'But isn't he angry with her for what she did? If I was a man and a girl treated me that way, I'd be apt to murder her if she tried to show up again.' 'He wouldn't. Nor would I, if--if anything like that happened to me; I'd wait and wait, and go on hoping all the time. And I'd go down to the station to meet the train every afternoon, just like Jack Tyson.' Something splashed on the tablecloth. It made me jump. 'For goodness' sake,' I said, 'what's your trouble? Brace up. I know it's a sad story, but it's not your funeral.' 'It is. It is. The same thing's going to happen to me.' 'Take a hold on yourself. Don't cry like that.' 'I can't help it. Oh! I knew it would happen. It's happening right now. Look--look at him.' I glanced over the rail, and I saw what she meant. There was her Charlie, dancing about all over the floor as if he had just discovered that he hadn't lived till then. I saw him say something to the girl he was dancing with. I wasn't near enough to hear it, but I bet it was 'This is the life!' If I had been his wife, in the same position as this kid, I guess I'd have felt as bad as she did, for if ever a man exhibited all the symptoms of incurable Newyorkitis, it was this Charlie Ferris.