Part 29 (1/2)
Silence.
”Say--Birdie! Say--”
”What?”
”I didn't say anything.”
”Oh!” The red in her face ran down into the square-shape neck of her dress.
Silence.
”Aw, look what you did, Marcus! You burnt the toe of your shoe!”
”Say, Birdie, what I started to say when your mamma and papa come in--er--”
”Yes?”
”What I started to say was, so long as a fellow's got intentions it's all right for him to call on a girl--er--regular, like this.” Her soft breathing answered him. ”But--well, I mustn't--I ain't got the right to come round here any more.”
She looked at him like a startled nymph.
”What is it?”
”So long as I had intentions it was all right, I say; but--well, now I ain't.”
”Ain't what?” Her breath came more rapidly between her lips.
”I was starting to say before they came in, Birdie--I came here straight from the office to tell you--even maw don't know it yet--_I've lost out!_ Loeb's daughter is engaged, and he's going to put his new son-in-law from Cleveland in the Newark factory.”
”Marcus!”
”Yes! You can't be so sore as I am--a twenty-eight-hundred-dollar job almost in my hand, and then this had to happen! The little raise I get now don't help. I can't ask a girl to marry me on fifteen hundred when I expected twice that much--not a girl like you!”
Birdie placed the palm of her hand flat against her cheek; the stars in her eyes had vanished in the light of understanding.
”Such a mean trick!” she gasped. ”How you've built up their trade for them--and now such a mean trick!”
”I was so sure all along, after what Loeb told me last month. Only last week I says to maw I'll ask you this week right after I know for certain. That sure I--was.”
His voice trailed off at the end. She sat watching the flames, her shoulders slightly stooped and her eyes quiet.
”You ain't so sorry as I am, Birdie. Believe me, I could die right now!
With you it ain't so bad--you got plenty good chances yet. But if you knew what feelings I got for you! With me there ain't no more Birdies.”
She turned her head slowly toward him; her throat throbbing and a delicate pink under her skin.
”I should care, Marcus!” she said, softly.
”What?”