and fifty dollars apiece landed in Italy and went straight through to--"

"The Lillianthals, Lillianthals," mimicked Mrs. Binswanger, sliding her
darning-egg down the length of a silken stocking. "I wish that name we
had never heard. All of a sudden now education like those girls you
think you got to have, music and--"

"Oh, mamma, honest, you just don't care how dumb us girls are. Look at
Ray and me, we haven't even got a common education like--"

"You can't say, Miriam Binswanger, that me or your papa ever held one
of our children back out of school. If they didn't want to go we
couldn't--"

"Oh, mamma, I--I don't mean just school. How do you think I feel when
all the girls begin to talk about Europe and all, and I got to sit back
at sewing-club like a stick?"

"Ain't it awful, Mabel!"

"Izzy!"

"Why do you think a fellow like Sol Blumenthal is all the time after
Lilly Lillianthal and Sophie Litz and those girls? He has been over
seventeen times, buying silks, and those girls don't have to sit back
like sticks when he talks about the shows in Paris and all."

"I know girls, Miriam, what got as fine husbands as Sol Blumenthal and
didn't need to run to Europe for them."