"We've made it up. It was like this...."
His conversation took an intimate turn. He expounded for Nelly's benefit the inner history, with all its ramifications, of a recent unfortunate rift between himself and "the best little girl in Flatbush"—what he had said, what she had said, what her sister had said, and how it all came right in the end. Jill might have felt a little excluded, but for the fact that a sudden and exciting idea had come to her. She sat back, thinking.... After all, what else was she to do? She must do something....
She bent forward and interrupted Mr. Brown in his description of a brisk passage of arms between himself and the best little girl's sister, who seemed to be an unpleasant sort of person in every way.
"Mr. Brown."
"Hello?"
"Do you think there would be any chance for me if I asked for work at Goble and Cohn's?"
"You're joking!" cried Nelly.
"I'm not at all."
"But what do you want with work?"
"I've got to find some. And right away, too."