Part 20 (1/2)
”He ain't good enough for you, baby!”
”He's ten times too good; that--that's all you know about it. Mommy, please! I--I just can't help it, dearie. It's just like when I--I saw him a--a clock began to tick inside of me. I--”
”O my G.o.d!” said Mrs. Kaufman, drawing her hand across her brow.
”His uncle Meyer, ma, 's been hinting all along he--he's going to give Leo his start and take him in the business. That's why we--we're waiting without saying much, till it looks more like--like we can all be together, ma.”
”All my dreams! My dreams I could give up the house! My baby with a well-to-do husband maybe on Riverside Drive. A servant for herself, so I could pa.s.s, maybe, Mrs. Suss and Mrs. Katz by on the street. Ruby, you--you wouldn't, Ruby. After how I've built for you!”
”Oh, mama, mama, mama!”
”If you 'ain't got ambitions for yourself, Ruby, think once of me and this long dream I been dreaming for--us.”
”Yes, ma. Yes.”
”Ruby, Ruby, and I always thought when you was so glad for Atlantic City, it was for Vetsburg; to show him how much you liked his folks. How could I know it was--.”
”I never thought, mommy. Why--why, Vetsy he's just like a relation or something.”
”I tell you, baby, it's just an idea you got in your head.”
”No, no, mama. No, no.”
Suddenly Mrs. Kaufman threw up her hands, clasping them tight against her eyes, pressing them in frenzy. ”O my G.o.d!” she cried. ”All for nothing!”
and fell to moaning through her laced fingers. ”All for nothing! Years.
Years. Years.”
”Mommy darling!”
”Oh--don't, don't! Just let me be. Let me be. O my G.o.d! My G.o.d!”
”Mommy, please, mommy! I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it, mommy darling.”
”I can't go on all the years, Ruby. I'm tired. Tired, girl.”
”Of course you can't, darling. We--I don't want you to. 'Shh-h-h!”
”It's only you and my hopes in you that kept me going all these years. The hope that, with some day a good man to provide for you, I could find a rest, maybe.”
”Yes, yes.”
”Every time what I think of that long envelope laying there on that desk with its lease waiting to be signed to-morrow, I--I could squeeze my eyes shut so tight and wish I didn't never have to open them again on this--this house and this drudgery. If you marry wrong, baby, I'm caught. Caught in this house like a rat in a trap.”
”No, no, mommy. Leo, he--his uncle--”
”Don't make me sign that new lease, Ruby. Shulif hounds me every day now.
Any day I expect he says is my last. Don't make me saddle another five years with the house. He's only a boy, baby, and years it will take, and--I'm tired, baby. Tired! Tired!” She lay back with her face suddenly held in rigid lines and her neck ribbed with cords.
At sight of her so prostrate there, Ruby Kaufman grasped the cold face in her ardent young hands, pressing her lips to the streaming eyes.