"You don't have to have any fight in you, Mamma. 'Ain't you got a husband and a son to fight for you?" "Sometimes I think, except for the piece of my heart I left lying back there, that there are worse agonies than even massacres. I've struggled so that he should be good and great, Mosher, and now, after four years already thinking I've won--maybe, after all, I haven't." "Why, Sara! Why, Mamma! Shame! I never saw you like this before. You ain't getting sick for another trip to the Catskills, are you? Maybe you need some baths--" "Sulphur water don't cure heart sickness." "Heart sickness, nonsense! You know I don't always take sides with Nicky, Mamma. I don't say he hasn't been a hard boy to raise. But a man, Mamma, is a man! I wouldn't think much of him if he wasn't. You 'ain't got him to your apron string in short pants any more. Whatever troubles we've had with him, women haven't been one of them. Shame, Mamma, the first time your grown-up son of a man cuts up maybe a little nonsense with the girls! Shame!" "Girls! No one would want more than me he should settle himself down to a fine, self-respecting citizen with a fine, sweet girl like Ad--" "Believe me, and I ain't ashamed to say it, I wasn't an angel, neither, every minute before I was married." "My husband brags to me about his indiscretioncies." "_Na, na_, Mamma, right away when I open my mouth you make out a case against me. I only say it to show you how a mother maybe don't understand as well as a father how natural a few wild oats can be." "L-Leo didn't have 'em." "Leo ain't a genius. He's just a good boy." "I--I worry so!" "Sara, I ask you, wouldn't I worry, too, if there was a reason? God forbid if his nonsense should lead to really something serious, then it's time to worry." Sara Turkletaub dried her eyes, but it was as if the shadow of crucifixion had moved forward in them. "If just once, Mosher, Nicky would make it easy for me, like Leo did for Gussie. When Leo's time comes he marries a fine girl like Irma Berkowitz from a fine family, and has fine children, without Gussie has to cry her eyes out first maybe he's in company that--that--" "I don't say, Sara, we didn't have our hard times with your boy. But we got results enough that we shouldn't complain. Maybe you're right. With a boy like Leo, a regular good business head who comes into the firm with us, it ain't been such a strain for Gussie and Aaron as for us with a genius. But neither have they got the smart son, the lawyer of the family, for theirs. _We_ got a temperament in ours, Sara. Ain't that something to be proud of?" She laid her cheek to his lapel, the freshet of her tears past staying. "I--I know it, Mosher. It ain't--often I give way like this." "We got such results as we can be proud of, Sara. A genius of a lawyer son on his way to the bench. Mark my word if I ain't right, on his way to the bench!" "Yes, yes, Mosher." "Well then, Sara, I ask you, is it nice to--"