"
"No, no; only, I got to tell you something! I 'ain't been to bed; I been
waiting up, and--"
"And what?"
"She just came home--engaged!"
"My God! Effie?"
He blinked in the darkness, drawing up his knees to a hump under the
sheet.
"Engaged--how?"
"I.W., don't you remember? Wake up, honey. To Kess, to Leon Kessler that
she went automobiling with."
"Our Effie engaged--to Leon Kessler?"
"Yes, I.W.--our little Effie!"
A smile spread over his face slowly, and he clasped his hands in an
embrace about his knees.
"You don't tell me!"
"Oh, I.W., please--"
"Our little girl. S-ay, how poor Lenie would have loved this happiness!
Our little girl engaged to get married!"
"I.W., she--"
"We do the right thing by them--eh, Hattie? Furnish them up as many
rooms as they want. But, s-ay, they don't need help from us. He's a
lucky boy who gets her, I don't care who he is. Her papa's little Effie,
a baby--old enough to get engaged!"
"I.W., she's too--young. Don't give him our little Effie; she's too
young!"
"I married her mother, Hattie, when she wasn't yet eighteen."
"I know, I.W., but not to Leon Kessler. She's such a baby, I.W.
He--didn't I work for him nine years, I.
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