“Movie!  The way every damn thing gets on my nerves, I’d be a hit at a movie, wouldn’t I?  I’d be a hit anywheres!”

“I tell you, Miss Mae, all this worry ain’t going to get you nowheres.  He’ll come around again all right if you only give him time.  And if he don’t, you should worry!  I tell you there ain’t one of ’em breathes is worth more than his bank-book.”

“God! my head!”

The figure on all-fours rose to full height, drying each forearm on her apron.

“Lay down, dearie, and just don’t you worry.  I’ve seen ’em get spells or get holy and stay away for two months on a stretch, and the checks not coming in regular as clockwork like yours, neither.  Two months at a time I’ve seen ’em stick away.  Why, when I worked on the lower West Side they used to stick away two and three months like that and then come loafing in one night just like nothing hadn’t happened.  You ain’t got no kick coming, Miss Mae.”

A layer of tears rose immediately to Miss Munroe’s eyes, dimming them.  She wiped them away with one of her sleeve frills.

“Max ain’t like that and you know it.  You’ve seen for yourself how he ’ain’t missed his every other night in three years.  You seen for yourself.”

“They’re all alike, I tell you, Miss Mae.  The best way to handle ’em is to leave ’em alone.”

“How he’s been falling off.  Loo, all—­”

“’Sh-h-h, now, Miss Mae, don’t begin getting excited—­all last night while I was rubbing your head that’s what you kept mumbling and mumbling even after you fell asleep.  That—­don’t help none.”

“All last month so irregular and now only once last week, and—­and not at all this week.  Good heavens!  I just wonder, I—­just wonder.”

“Now, just whatta you bet he’ll be up to supper to-night, Miss Mae?  If I was you, dearie, I wouldn’t be scared, I’d just go right to the telephone and—­”

“He gets so sore, Loo.  You remember that time I telephoned him about that case of wine he sent up and it came busted, and his mother—­his old woman was in the office.  He raises hell if I try to telephone him during business.”

“Just the same, I got a hunch he’ll be up to supper to-night, and when I get a hunch things happen.”

“It’s his old woman, I tell you.  It’s his old woman is sniffing things again.  Say, if he’d ever let me clap eyes on that old hag, wouldn’t I learn her how to keep her nose out of his business alrighty.  Wouldn’t I just learn her!  God! my head!”

“Lay down on the sofa, dearie, and rest up your red eyes.  Take my tip he’ll be up to supper to-night.  I’m going to order him a double sirloin and a can of them imported—­”

“Ugh!  For Pete’s sake cut it, Loo!  If anybody mentions bill of fare to me I’ll yell.  Take them empty bottles out of here, Loo, and choke that damn clock with another pillow.  My head’ll just bust if I don’t get some sleep.”

“There, there, dearie!  Here, lemme pull down the shades.  Just try to remember there ain’t one of them is worth more than his bank-book.  I ain’t going down to the dance with Sharkey to-night; I’m going to stay right here and—­”