“He was mighty formal, as you’d say, but he didn’t throw any stuttering into Alibi Al. I set down, just as if the place belonged to me, and I waved a hand at him. I said to myself, ‘You’re a little piker; line up and take what’s coming to you.’
“But what I said out loud was like this,
“‘Carrots has got a little bunch of stuff that’s goin’ to be wiped out if it ain’t covered.’
“That was her nickname among the youngsters, because her blue-black hair in the sun had a heavenly copper glint.
“He looked mixed up.
“‘What, precisely, do you mean?’ he says.
“I didn’t pay any attention to him. I went on just as if he hadn’t said a word.
“‘Women’s got no sense about business—she’s agoin’ to lose it?’
“‘Lose what?’ he says.
“‘Rotten the way they bring girls up,’ I says, the same as if he hadn’t spoke. ‘Here’s this steel bunch beating the stuff down; her broker wires for somethin’ to cover it, an’ she sticks the telegram up against the lookin’-glass so she’ll remember to write to him next week—can you beat it?’