people would have scorned this talk as gossip; but then
one has to talk about what one knows.

It was one Saturday night, as they were coming home
from a wedding, that Tamoszius found courage, and set
down his violin-case in the street and spoke his heart; and
then Marija clasped him in her arms. She told them all
about it the next day, and fairly cried with happiness,
for she said that Tamoszius was a lovely man. After
that he no longer made love to her with his fiddle, but
they would sit for hours in the kitchen, blissfully happy
in each other's arms; it was the tacit convention of the
family to know nothing of what was going on in that
corner.

They were planning to be married in the spring, and
have the garret of the house fixed up, and live there.
Tamoszius made good wages; and little by little the
family were paying back their debt to Marija, so she
ought soon to have enough to start life upon -- only, with
her preposterous soft-heartedness, she would insist upon
spending a good part of her money every week for things
which she saw they needed. Marija was really the capi~
talist of the party, for she had become an expert can-
painter by this time -- she was getting fourteen cents for
every hundred and ten cans, and she could paint more
than two cans every minute. Marija felt, so to speak, that
she had her hand on the throttle, and the neighborhood
was vocal with her rejoicings.

Yet her friends would shake their heads and tell her to
go slow; one could not count upon such good fortune for~
ever -- there were accidents that always happened. But
Marija was not to be prevailed upon, and went on planning
and dreaming of all the treasures she was going to have
for her home; and so, when the crash did come, her grief
was painful to see.

For her canning-factory shut down! Marija would
about as soon have expected to see the sun shut down --
the huge establishment had been to her a thing akin to
the planets and the seasons. But now it was shut! And
they had not given her any explanation, they had not even

[[101]]

p100 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p101w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p102

v?