"Yes, Kiddo. Apologies to Aunt Beulah (mustn't call you Kiddo) and the reason is, that I'm broke. I haven't got any money at all, Eleanor, and I don't know where I am going to get any. You see, it is this way. I lost my job six weeks ago." "But you go to work every morning, Uncle Jimmie?" "I leave the house, that is. I go looking for work, but so far no nice juicy job has come rolling down into my lap. I haven't told you this before because,--well--when Aunt Beulah comes down every day to give you your lessons I wanted it to look all O. K. I thought if you didn't know, you couldn't forget sometime and tell her." "I don't tattle tale," Eleanor said. "I know you don't, Eleanor. It's only my doggone pride that makes me want to keep up the bluff, but you're a game kid,--you--know. I tried to get you switched off to one of the others till I could get on my feet, but--no, they just thought I had stage fright. I couldn't insist. It would be pretty humiliating to me to admit that I couldn't support one-sixth of a child that I'd given my solemn oath to be-parent." "To--to what?" "Be-parent, if it isn't a word, I invent it. It's awfully tough luck for you, and if you want me to I'll own up to the crowd that I can't swing you, but if you are willing to stick, why, we'll fix up some kind of a way to cut down expenses and bluff it out." Eleanor considered the prospect. Jimmie watched her apparent hesitation with some dismay. "Say the word," he declared, "and I'll tell 'em." "Oh! I don't want you to tell 'em," Eleanor cried. "I was just thinking. If you could get me a place, you know, I could go out to work. You don't eat very much for a man, and I might get my meals thrown in--" "Don't, Eleanor, don't," Jimmie agonized. "I've got a scheme for us all right. This--this embarrassment is only temporary. The day will come when I can provide you with Pol Roge and diamonds. My father is rich, you know, but he swore to me that I couldn't support myself, and I swore to him that I could, and if I don't do it, I'm damned. I am really, and that isn't swearing." "I know it isn't, when you mean it the way they say in the Bible." "I don't want the crowd to know. I don't want Gertrude to know. She hasn't got much idea of me anyway. I'll get another job, if I can only hold out." "I can go to work in a store," Eleanor cried. "I can be one of those little girls in black dresses that runs between counters." "Do you want to break your poor Uncle James' heart, Eleanor,--do you?" "No, Uncle Jimmie." "Then listen to me. I've borrowed a studio, a large barnlike studio on Washington Square, suitably equipped with pots and pans and kettles. Also, I am going to borrow the wherewithal to keep us going. It isn't a bad kind of place if anybody likes it. There's one dinky little bedroom for you and a cot bed for me, choked in bagdad. If you could kind of engineer the cooking end of it, with me to do the dirty work, of course, I think we could be quite snug and cozy."