Every Soul Hath Its Song | Page 9

weepers. Two sparrows hopped in
and out among the stone gargoyles of a municipal building. A
dray-driver cursed at the snarl of traffic and flecked the first sweat from
his horse's flanks. A gaily striped awning drooped across the front of
the White Flag steamship offices, and out from its entrance, spring in
her face, emerged Miss Miriam Binswanger; at her shoulder Irving
Shapiro attended.
"Honest, Mr. Shapiro, I--I just don't know what I would have done
except for you."

"I told you Harry Mansbach would fix you up."
She clasped her wrist-bag carefully over the bulk of a thick envelope
and turned her shining face full upon him.
"On deck A, too, right with the best!"
He steered her by a light pressure of her arm into the up-town flux of
the sidewalk. "If I was a right smart kind of a fellow I never would
have helped you to get those cabins."
"Oh, Mr. Shapiro!"
"But that's me every time, always working against myself."
"Well, of all the nerve!" And her voice would belie that she knew his
delicate portent.
"If not for me, maybe you couldn't have gotten those reservations and
you would have to stay at home. That's where I would come in, see?"
"Well, of all things!"
"But that's me every time. Meet a girl one day, take a fancy to her, and
off she sails for Europe the next."
"Honest, Mr. Shapiro, you're just the limit!" She would have no more
hold of his arm, but at the next Subway hood paused in the act of
descending and held out her hand. "I'm just so much obliged, Mr.
Shapiro."
He removed his hat, standing there holding it in the crook of his arm,
the bright sunlight on his wavy hair. "Aw, now, Miss Binswanger, is
this the way to leave a fellow?"
"Sure, it is! Anyways, don't you have to go to work?"
"I should let my work interfere with my pleasure! Anyway, that's the
beauty of my line--I work when I please, not when my boss pleases."

"I got to go shopping and straight home, Mr. Shapiro. Just think, two
weeks from yesterday we sail, and we got enough sewing and packing
to be done at our house to keep a whole regiment busy."
He withdrew her from the tangle of pedestrians and into the entrance of
a corner candy-shop. "Aw, now, what's your hurry?" he insisted,
regarding her with smiling, invitational eyes.
"Well, of all the nerve!" She would not meet his gaze, and swung her
little leather wrist-bag back and forward by its strap.
"I dare you to get on the Elevated with me and ride out with me to
Bronx Park for a sniff of the country."
"I should say not! I got to go buy a steamer-trunk and a whole list of
things mamma gave me and then hurry home and help. Maybe--maybe
some other day."
"Aw, have a heart, Miss Miriam! To-morrow I've got to go over to
Newark to sell a bill of goods. Maybe some other day will never come.
Feel how grand it is out. Just half a day. Come!"
She was full of small emphasis and with no yielding note in her voice.
"No, no, I can't go."
"Just a little while, Miss Miriam. All those things will keep until
to-morrow. I can get you a steamer-trunk wholesale, anyway. Look, it's
nearly two o'clock already! Come on and be game! Think of it--out in
the park a day like this! Grass growing, birds singing, and the zoo and
all. Aw, be game, Miss Miriam!"
"If I thought Ray would help mamma; but she's got a grouch on and--"
"Sure she will! Gee! what's the fun meeting a girl you think you're
going to like if she won't do one little thing for a fellow! You bet it ain't
every girl I'd beg like this. Whoops, I could just rip things open
to-day!" It was as if he felt his life in every limb. "Come on, Miss
Miriam, be a sport! Come on!"

"I--I oughtn't to."
"That's what makes it all the more fun."
Her eyes were so dark, so like pools! They met his with a smile clear
through to their depths. "Well, maybe, but--but just for a little while."
"Just a little while."
"I--I oughtn't."
"You ought."
"Well, just this once."
"Sure, just this once." He linked his arm in hers.
"I--I--"
"Gee!" he said, "you're a girl after my own heart!"
On the Elevated train the windows were lowered to the first inrush of
spring, and when they left the city behind them came the first green
smells of open field and bursting bud.
"Now are you sorry you came, little Miss Miriam?"
She bared her head to the rush of breeze and he held