Part 35 (2/2)

”All right! Go ahead and choke! The thing I've made up my mind to tell you, Dave McFadden, is this: I'll never again lick your boots when you're sober nor run from you when you're drunk. Kill me now if you want to! Go on! You've probably killed ma and if she's lying there in the hospital dead this minute, I wish you would kill me! Then you could go drown yourself and that would be the end of all of us!”

Dave McFadden groaned. ”For G.o.d's sake,” he implored, ”can't you let up on me?”

Janet looked at him steadily. ”Have you ever let up on us?”

He stared about helplessly and asked, with the querulousness, almost, of a child: ”What is it you want me to do? Do you want me to go to the hospital to see her?”

Janet laughed drearily. ”They wouldn't let you in. I asked the doctor did he want you to come and he said, no, the sight of you would probably give her another attack.”

Dave shuffled uneasily. ”Then I suppose I might as well go to work.”

”Yes,” Janet agreed, ”you might as well go to work. But before you go, will you please give me a quarter? I borrowed a quarter from Rosie to buy your breakfast.”

Dave put his hand in his pocket and found a quarter. He flipped it across the table. ”Here's your money, Rosie.”

”And if you want me to get any supper for you,” Janet went on, ”you'll have to give me some money, too.”

Dave hesitated. He was not accustomed to paying the household expenses.

Before he realized what he was saying, he asked: ”Hasn't your mother any money?” Under the instant fire of Janet's scorn, he saw his mistake and reddened with shame.

”Yes,” Janet told him grimly, ”she's got one dollar and I'll see you starve to death before I touch one cent of it for you! If you want any supper, you pay for it yourself; and you'll pay for mine, too, if I get any. If I don't get any, it won't be the first time.”

Dave slowly emptied his pocket. He had a two-dollar bill, a fifty-cent piece, and some small change. ”Here,” he said, offering Janet the bill and the fifty-cent piece. ”Will that suit you?”

Janet took the money but refused to be placated. ”It ain't what will suit me or won't suit me. You know as well as I do what's fair and square, and that's all there is to it. And while we're on money,” she continued, ”I might as well tell you if you don't pay five dollars on the rent we'll be dispossessed next Monday. On account of ma being sick so much lately we've dropped behind four weeks and the agent won't wait any longer.”

Dave swallowed hard. ”This is all I got till Sat.u.r.day.”

”Are you sure you'll have any more on Sat.u.r.day?”

Dave looked hurt. ”Won't I have a whole week's wages?”

”I don't know.” Janet spoke without any feeling as one merely stating a fact. ”Most weeks, you know, you're in debt to the saloon, and when you pay up there on Sat.u.r.day afternoon you haven't much left by night.”

Dave smothered an oath. It was plain that he thought he had done a very handsome thing in pa.s.sing over the greater part of his money. It was also plain that he had expected a grateful ”Thank you.” And what did he feel he was receiving? An insult! He looked at Janet in sullen resentment. ”You're a nice one, you are, talking that way to your own father! I tell you one thing, though: you wouldn't talk that way if your mother was around. She's got a heart, she has! All you've got is a turnip!”

At mention of her mother, Janet choked a little. ”My mother don't think my heart's a turnip and Rosie don't, either. All I've got to say is, if it looks like a turnip to you, it's because you've changed it into one yourself.”

To this Dave made no answer. Without further words he could better preserve the expression of grieved and unappreciated parenthood.

Whatever he may have done or may not have done in the past, just now he had been n.o.ble and generous. And would his own child acknowledge this?

No! He bore her no grudge; his face very plainly said so; but he was hurt, deeply hurt. Under cover of the hurt, he opened the door quietly and made his escape.

In Janet the fires of indignation flickered and went out, leaving her cold and lifeless. She threw herself into a chair and folded her hands.

”You certainly did give it to him straight, Janet!” Rosie spoke in tones of deep admiration.

Janet laughed scornfully. ”Give it to him straight! Oh, yes, I gave it to him straight all right!” She s.h.i.+vered and clenched her hands. ”I can talk! That's where we come in strong. Take the women in this tenement and they've all got tongues as sharp as ice-picks. Any one of them can talk a man to death. But what does it all amount to? Nothing! I tell you, Rosie, they've got the bulge on us, for, as soon as we make things hot for them, all they've got to do is clear out!” Janet sighed unhappily. ”Then they pay us back by not coming home and when they get injured or pulled in it all comes out that it's our fault because we haven't made home pleasant for them. Huh! They always make it so awful pleasant for us, don't they?”

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