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“Well, don’t just say you will and then forget about it.” He nodded his head, squashed his cigarette in a tray.

“Any pickup in business, Phil?” Studs asked.

“No complaints, Studs,” Phil said, stretching his legs. “In a way, hard times are playing right into my hands. There’s lots of people these days who’ve got to live on less than they used to. And, of course, the races give them a chance to pick up some extra change. For instance, every day I get a lot of women coming in to play the ponies. Married women, trying to win pin money or a few extra pennies for the household budget. And you should see how they take to the races. Just like a duck to water.”

“That’s a new angle,” said Studs, smiling.

“Most of them make piker bets of fifty cents, but that all adds up in the end. In fact, I’m thinking of lowering my limit to a quarter minimum bet on week days. If I do that, I won’t only be helping myself, I’ll be giving plenty of people who’ve been socked by the depression a chance to keep their heads a little above water by winning on the races.”

“Studs, have you set a date for your marriage yet?” Loretta asked, looking at him. Studs, glanced away from her scrutinizing eyes, thinking that maybe both of them were thinking of when he and Catherine would be living together just as she and Phil were: the possibility of his kid sister thinking of such things in connection with him made him feel kind of queer.

“Oh, sometime early next year, I guess,” he said.

“Catherine’s a sweet kid. And, Studs, I consider this a real compliment when I say that I think you’re getting as good a wife as I got.”

“Go on with you,” Loretta said, blushing, and then throwing a smile at Phil.

“She is so natural and spontaneous, too. I like her,” Loretta said.

“Yes, I like her,” Studs said in his clipped manner, but he wasn’t sure if Loretta really meant what she said and wasn’t just sugaring over a catty feeling about Catherine; he felt that maybe Fritzie thought her kind of common.

“Studs, let me give you some advice. Don’t go up in an airplane on your honeymoon. I did. I got dizzy and sick as a dog,” Phil said, a smile of reminiscence on his fat, contented face.

“I got so afraid. I screamed outlandishly when we went up, I saw the ground getting farther and farther away, and all the time I kept thinking suppose we fall,” Loretta added.

“It might be fun,” Studs said, succumbing to the temptation of acting devil-may-care.

“You can try. Never again for me, though. When we were landing, I said to myself, `Phil, you’re a lad who was born to strut your stuff with your feet solid on the ground, and not with the clouds mussing your hair.’ “

“Gee, it was funny, thinking about it after we came down. It was like getting terribly scared on a roller coaster. I agree with Phil, though, never again for me. If I went up again, I know I’d be so petrified that I’d faint.”

They smiled politely.

“So you’re joining the Christys, huh, Studs?” Phil remarked after an interval of silence.

“Yes, I guess it’s about time.”

“I wish I’d known soon enough. I’d gone through with you.

I guess now I’ll have to wait until the next initiation. I want to get into the same council as you do,” Phil said.

“I think I’ll be in condition to play in the baseball league a year from this summer,” Studs said, noting the surprise that came into Phil’s face.

“Studs, you really should take care of yourself,” Loretta said.

“I am, I’m feeling better than I’ve been in a long time.”

“I know. Mother told me you were turned down by an insurance company because of your heart and were going to join the Order of Christopher because of the insurance, and now you talk about playing baseball. Mother, you know, is more worried over you than she lets on.”

“My heart’s going to get better. That insurance company doctor was just too damn finicky,” Studs protested, his pallid face flushing, a sense of humiliation driving a river of shame through his mind.

“William, stop being so foolish!” Loretta said to him as if he were a little boy who had angered her.

“I tell you, Fritzie, that this heart condition