"I think I would," said Eleanore. "It must be so quiet up there in the moon."
"Come over here at once." My father's voice over the telephone, one morning a few days later, sounded thick and unnatural.
When I reached the house in Brooklyn he came himself to let me in and took me into the library. I was shocked by his face, it was terribly worn, quite plainly he had been up all night. As he began speaking his voice shook and he leaned forward, every inch of him tense.
Sue had told him the night before that she was going to marry Joe Kramer. In reply to his anxious questions she had given him some of the facts about what Joe was doing. And Dad had stormed at her half the night.
"She wants to marry him, Billy," he cried. "She's got her mind set on a man like that! What has he got to support her with? Not a cent, not even a decent job! He's not writing now. Do you know what he's doing? Stirring up strikes--of the ugliest kind--of the most ignorant class of men--foreigners! I know such strikes--I've fought 'em myself and I know how they're handled! That young man will land in jail! And it's where he belongs! Do you know what he's up to right here on the docks?"
"Why didn't you tell me? Why did you let him come to the house?"
"You were, eh--well, you'll stop it now! Understand me, Billy, he's your friend--you brought him here--way back at the start. You've got to put a stop to this----"
"But how?" I asked, trying to steady my voice. "What do you think that I can do?"
"You can talk to her, can't you? God Almighty! Make her see this will ruin her life!"
"Can't you?" He rose and bent over me gripping my arms, and I felt his violent trembling. "If you don't, it's the end of me," he said.
"Steady, Dad--now steady--this is coming out all right, you know----" I got him back into his chair. "I'm going to do all I possibly can. I'm going to see Joe Kramer now--he's the only one who can influence her. I'm going to get him to come to Sue and help me make her feel what's ahead--the hardest, ugliest parts of his life. Now promise you'll keep out of it, promise you'll leave her alone while I'm gone."
He agreed to this at last and I left him. But as I went into the hall Sue came to me from the other room. Her face was white and strained.