“I know—I ain’t never seen yours, but I’ve been in the buildin’ to see Mrs. Lambert, and they’re beautiful flats. Say, do you think your mother’s goin’ to like me?” “How could _anyone_ help liking you? You’re so pretty, so sweet, Katie.” “Maybe—but that don’t mean very much to most women,” she answered dubiously. “My mother’s different,” he defended. “She’ll be wonderful to you and help you a lot. I know you two are going to get along wonderfully together.” “Why, Howard!” she sat back suddenly and looked at him. “You ain’t figurin’ on your mother livin’ with us, are you?” “Certainly, dear.” His astonishment was equal to her own. “Surely, you didn’t think I intended to leave my mother?” “Well, don’t every boy and every girl leave their mothers when they get married? You ain’t no different!” “No—but my mother’s different,” he answered tenderly. “Why, she’s a brick, I tell you. She stood by me through thick and thin! She had a lot of money two years ago, but she spent every dollar of it for me!” “Well, it’s a mother’s duty to stand by her children, ain’t it?” “I don’t know about that! I hadn’t been such a wonderful son to her, and it’s only in the last two years we’ve grown so close to each other. I wouldn’t hurt her for the world!” he declared. “Oh, all right, kid!” Katie moved away from him. “If that’s the way you feel about it—let’s just call our engagement off!” “Katie! You wouldn’t do that! I love you too much!” “And I love you, Howard. But there ain’t goin’ to be no mother-in-law business in my life. My ma says to me: ‘Take it from me, Kitty, there ain’t no home big enough for two families.’ And she ought to know. She’s been married three times.” “But there wouldn’t be anything like that with my mother—you’re bound to love her.” “Sure! That’s all right,” she answered heartily. “I want to love her, and I want her to love me! But I don’t want to live with her.” “It’s the terrible loneliness of it all that keeps me thinking,” Howard went on ruminatively, as though he were thinking aloud. “You see, mother never goes anywhere. Why she never leaves the flat unless it is to go on an errand, or do her marketing. She hasn’t a friend or companion. She just lives for me alone.” “Well, we can see her every day, can’t we? She’ll get used to it all right. Every mother’s got to see her kids grow up and get married, and leave her. She didn’t think you was goin’ to be a—a—you know what I mean—an old-maid man—did she?” Howard smiled in spite of himself. “No, I suppose not. But come up now, and meet my mother. You may feel differently after that.” “I’ll go and meet your mother willingly—but I won’t change my mind,” was his fiancée’s stubborn reply. “There ain’t goin’ to be no mother-in-laws——” He stopped her with a kiss as they started down the path.