“’Sh-h-h!  N-no!  No, it ain’t.  It—­it ain’t pa.  It’s me, Renie—­it’s me!” He crumbled at her feet, his palms plastered over his eyes and his fingers clutched deep in the high nap of his hair.  “It’s me!  It’s me!”

“What?  What?”

“’Sh-h-h!  For God’s sake, Renie, you got to stand by me; you got to stand by me this time if you ever did!  Promise me, Renie!  It’s me, Renie.  I—­Oh, my God!  Oh, my God!”

She stooped to his side, her voice and hands trembling beyond control.  “Izzy!  Izzy, tell me—­tell me!  What is it?”

“Oh, my God, why didn’t I die?  Why didn’t I die?”

“Izzy, what—­what is it?  Money?  Haven’t I always stood by you before?  Won’t I now?  Tell me, Izzy.  Tell me, I say!”

She tugged at his hands, prying them away from his eyes; but the terror she saw there set her trembling again and thrice she opened her lips before she found voice.

“Izzy, if you don’t tell me, mamma will be back soon, and then pa; and—­you better tell me quick.  Your own sister will stand by you.  Get up, dearie.”  Tears trickled through his fingers and she could see the curve of his back rise and fall to the retching of suppressed sobs.  “Izzy, you got to tell me quick—­do you hear?”

He raised his ravaged face at the sharp-edged incisiveness in her voice.  “I’m in trouble, Renie—­such trouble.  Oh, my God, such horrible trouble!”

“Tell me quick—­do you hear?  Quick, or mamma and papa—­”

“Renie—­’sh-h-h!  They mustn’t know—­the old man mustn’t; she mustn’t, if—­if I got to kill myself first.  His heart—­he—­he mustn’t, Renie—­he mustn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“It’s all up, Renie.  I’ve done something—­the worst thing I ever done in my life; but I didn’t know while I was doing it, Renie, how—­what it was.  I swear I didn’t!  It was like borrowing, I thought.  I was sure I could pay it back.  I thought the system was a great one and—­and I couldn’t lose.”

“Izzy—­roulette again!  You—­you been losing at—­at roulette again?”

“No, no; but they found out at—­at the bank, Renie.  I—­oh, my God!  Nothing won’t save me!”

“The bank, Izzy?”

“They found out, Renie.  Yesterday, when the bank was closed, he—­Uncle Isadore—­put ’em on the books.  Nothing won’t save me now, Renie.  He won’t; you—­you know him—­hard as nails!  Nothing won’t save me.  It’s going to be stripes for me, Renie.  Ma—­the old man—­stripes!  I—­I can’t let ’em do it.  I—­I’ll kill myself first.  I can’t let ’em—­I—­can’t—­I can’t let ’em!”

He burrowed his head in her lap to stifle his voice, which slipped up and away from his control; and her icy hands and knees could feel his entire body trembling.

“’Sh-h-h, dearie!  Try to tell me slow, dearie, for pa’s and ma’s sake, so—­so we can fix it up somehow.”

“We can’t fix it up.  The old man ’ain’t got the money and—­and he can’t stand it.”