"What's wrong? Ain't everything all right, children?"
"Aw, mamma, it ain't nothing wrong! Don't get so excited over everything."
"Birdie's right, mamma—what you so excited about? What is it you got to say, Marcus?"
"I ain't frightened; but what's the matter, children? This is what we need yet something to happen when it's all fixed!"
"Well, I told Birdie about it at lunch to-day, and—"
There was a pause. Birdie linked her arm within the young man's and regarded her parents like a Nemesis at the bar.
"It isn't so bad as Marcus makes out, papa."
"Well, young man?" questioned Mr. Katzenstein, sharply.
"Well, you don't need to holler at him, papa."
"I got some bad news to-day, Mr. Katzenstein. The raise I was expecting I don't get—instead of twenty-eight hundred dollars I go only to fifteen. Loeb is going to put his son-in-law, Steinfeld, from Cleveland, in the new factory. I still just got the city trade."