"I was afraid I was going to lose you, my dear," he said; "I thought you had forgotten me."
"I never forget a friend," replied Margaret; "I am like my poor mother, Mr. Nathan. Did she ever forget you?"
She chattered about odd things for a few minutes before she came to the point. She even took a customer out of Mr. Nathan's hands, and sold the man a coat and a Waistcoat for half as much again as Mr.. Nathan would have obtained for them; true, she sweetened the articles with smiles and flattering words, and sent the customer away, dazed and entranced. Mr. Nathan looked on with undisguised admiration.
"What a saleswoman you would have made!" he exclaimed, raising his hands. "You talked to the man as though you had been born in the business, my dear--born in the business."
"The fact is, Mr. Nathan," said Margaret, with brazen audacity, "I am a very clever woman; and, besides, I am an actress, and know how to wheedle the men." She sighed pensively and added, "But I am a fool with it all. I can sell a coat, but I can't serve my dearest friends. Oh, that I were a man and had the brains of a man!"
With a humorous look Mr. Lewis Nathan placed his hands to his head.
"Here is a man's head," said he, "and a man's brains, very much at your service, my dear."
"Come along, then," she cried. "It is hard if you and I can't win when we go into partnership. What do you say, now? Shall we become partners?"
"My dear," said the old rascal, "I should like to take you as a partner for life."
"It is a good job for me," said Margaret archly, "that you are not thirty years younger. As it is I have almost lost my heart to you."