"Ersten wouldn't give papa enough room," broke in Mama Schnitt indignantly, "so he quits, and he don't go back till he does."
"So I don't ever go back," concluded Heinrich.
"Well, we got enough that papa don't have to work any more," asserted Mama Schnitt with proper pride and a glance at Flora Kraus; "but he gets lonesome. That's why we make him come down to Coney to-day and enjoy himself. He was with Louis Ersten thirty-seven years."
A wave of homesickness swept over Heinrich.
"I take it easy in my old days," he stoutly maintained, but with such inward distress that, without a protest, he allowed the waiter to remove his half-emptied glass of beer.
"I'm glad you can take it easy," declared Constance, "but Ersten's customers will miss you very much—and I am sure Ersten will, too."
"We worked together thirty-seven years," said Schnitt wistfully.
"I'm sure it's only obstinacy," commented Constance when she and Johnny had rejoined their party. "Why, Mr. Schnitt and Mr. Ersten have grown up together in the business, and they seemed more like brothers than anything else. I'd give anything to bring them together again!"
"I'll ask you for it some time," asserted Johnny confidently.
He caught a flash of challenge in her eyes and realized that he was moving faster than his schedule would permit.