“‘Belle,’ she says, ‘you can have the French car,’ she says, ‘and, what’s more, I’ll go along. Where are you now?’
“‘At Mrs. Big Joe’s,’ I says.
“‘Then,’ she says, ‘get trimmed up, Belle,’ she says, ‘b’cause it won’t be more’n ten minutes till I’m yellin’ my head off out in front of that there place for you,’ she says. Then we hangs up, and I’m the busy party for a while, gettin’ fixed for the trip. Oncet I says to Mrs. Big Joe that I’d ought to stick around and take care of her, but she let out a awful holler at that.
“‘There is big things to be did this day,’ says she, ‘and I’m sure I’m able to take care of myself,’ she says, ‘for there’s the nurse to bawl out,’ she says, ‘when I want somethin’ to do. And, anyway, I want Mike the Wop to understand that ladies has a puffec’ right to listen at a telephone. I do it myself,’ she says, ‘and I ain’t goin’ to stand for no call down from no cheap Sicilian,’ she says. ‘Our husban’s ought to beat him up.’
“‘Ain’t that the truth!’ I says, real emphatically. And then I was on my way, hopefuller than I’d been since the Wop showed us his hand.
“Mrs. Gold Dollar was waitin’ for me when I got downstairs.
“‘Belle,’ she says to me, ‘wait till we get over in Brooklyn,’ she says. ‘I’ve told my man to hit it up and make Sheepshead Bay quicker than it was ever did b’fore. I don’t care if we do get pinched,’ she says, ‘for the Gold Dollar is havin’ a great season with his book, and his wife ought to be allowed a little fun now and then,’ she says.
“My eyes was shut all durin’ that trip, mister, so I can’t tell just what happened. All I know is that them new French-make cars hits only every sixteenth high spot, and even at that they touch so light that you can’t notice it. Mrs. Gold Dollar screamed all the way out. When she begun, the choofer stopped the car, but she hollers:
“‘Ferdunund, if you do that again, I’ll scream! Go on! Make them wheels go round like they was paid for it. I’m havin’ the time of my life!’
“And you can take it from me, mister, he done just that. Whee! We sure did go; and it didn’t seem hardly ten minutes b’fore the thing stopped, and there we was. Both of us set right out on a hunt for Danny, and pretty soon we found him talkin’ with a couple of gents.