“Her name’s Gardner. She’s visiting the Cuttners. She sang in the choir last Sunday.”
“Anna! Answer me, quick! Is it the girl Nat’s been seen publicly on the streets with?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps so! What if it is? There’s no crime in Nat being seen walking the streets with a girl, that I know of. Nat’s got to have his girl friends some time.”
“But my God, woman! Suppose she compromises the innocent, unsuspecting boy! Suppose——”
“Compromises him?”
“Suppose the boy loses his head and has to marry her! I’ll see him dead before I’ll see him make hamburg of his life as marriage made hamburg of mine!”
“You’ll only make it worse by opposing him! Do have a little sense!” The wife was too calloused to appreciate the insult to herself.
“I know! That’s the hard part. What can I do? I feel so helpless and weak and incompetent.”
“Why go to all this fuss? Why do anything at all about it? You’re an awful lot of trouble to yourself at times, John Forge! Let the whole thing work itself out If you don’t attach any importance to it, neither will Nathan.”
“But he’s such a sickly, sentimental young fool! I can’t trust him! I can’t trust him, I say!”