Mrs. Kaufman let her hands drop idly in her lap and her head fell back against the chair. In repose the lines of her mouth turned up, and her throat, where so often the years eat in first, was smooth and even slender above the rather round swell of bosom.
"Always around Easter spring fever right away gets hold of me!"
Mr. Vetsburg bit his cigar, slumped deeper; and inserted a thumb in the arm of his waistcoat.
"Why, Mrs. Kaufman, don't you and Ruby come down by Atlantic City with me to-morrow over Easter? Huh? A few more or less don't make no difference to my sister the way they get ready for crowds."
Miss Kaufman shot forward, her face vivid.
"Oh, Vetsy," she cried, and a flush rushed up, completely dyeing her face. His face lit with hers, a sunburst of fine lines radiating from his eyes.
"Why--why, we--we'd just love it, wouldn't we, ma? Atlantic City, Easter Day! Ma!"
Mrs. Kaufman sat upright with a whole procession of quick emotions flashing their expressions across her face. They ended in a smile that trembled as she sat regarding the two of them.
"I should say so, yes! I--You and Ruby go, Mr. Vetsburg. Atlantic City, Easter Day, I bet is worth the trip. I--You two go, I should say so, but you don't want an old woman to drag along with you."
"Ma! Just listen to her, Vetsy! Ain't she--ain't she just the limit? Half the time when we go in stores together they take us for sisters, and then she--she begins to talk like that to get out of going!"
"Ruby don't understand; but it ain't right, Mr. Vetsburg, I should be away over Saturday and Sunday. On Easter always they expect a little extra, and with Annie's sore ankle, I--I--"
"Oh, mommy, can't you leave this old shebang for only two days just for an Easter Sunday down at Atlantic, where--where everybody goes?"
"You know yourself, Ruby, how always on Annie's Sunday out--"
"Well, what of it? It won't hurt all of them old things upstairs that let you wait on them hand and foot all year to go without a few frills for their Easter dinner."
"I mean it. The old gossip-pots! I just sat and looked at them there at supper, and I said to myself, I said, to think they drown kittens and let those poor lumps live!"
"Ruby, aren't you ashamed to talk like that?"