"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."