Part 33 (2/2)
didn't change it. Ten days ago you were standin' at this very window answering his signal and hating him with every swing of the lantern.”
”Cottie, you mustn't!”
”I used to see you sit across from him at the table, and when he yelled at you or wanted to pet you I've seen you run your finger-nails into you palms from hatin' him, clear in till they bled, like you used to do when you was a kid and hated any one, and now, just because he's dead--”
”Oh, Gawd, I never done the right thing by him! He was my husband. Look how bare I kept everything from him. He used to come home from a forty-eight-hour s.h.i.+ft and say this house reminded him of h.e.l.l with the fire gone out. I never did the right thing by him.”
”He didn't by you, neither.”
”He was my husband.”
”He knew if we'd 'a' had the money to light out and do like Lily he wouldn't 'a' stood a show of bein' your husband, though. He knew, from the day they put the bandages on maw's eyes, thet he was just the only way out for us. He knew one of us had to quit the factory and stay home with her--and where was the money comin' from? He knew.”
”Yes, he knew, Cottie. Even on the New York accommodation, that time on the wedding-trip, trouble began right off. When that fellow on the train got talkin' to me and told me he could give me a job in the biggest show on Broadway, he nearly hauled off and raised a row right there on the train when he came back and seen me talkin' to him.”
”If only you'd got the fellow's name, Della, and his street in New York!”
”How could I, when John came back and began snarlin' like--”
”Would you know him if you seen him again, Della? Think, darlin', would you?”
”Would I? In my sleep I'd know him. He was a short fellow with eyes so little they didn't show when he laughed, and a mouth full of gold teeth that stuck out like a buck's. And say, Cottie, for diamonds! A diamond horseshoe scarf-pin as big as a dollar!”
”There's money in it, Della. Look at Lily. Tessie says she's diamond rings to her knuckles.”
”John knew what took the life out of me, from that day on. He used to say if he ever laid eyes on that little bullet-headed, rat-eyed sport, as he called him, he'd shake the life out of him. Just like that!”
”Faugh! he wouldn't 'a' had the nerve!”
”Don't you forget he knew what was eatin' us, Cottie.”
”Well, wasn't it our right--a beauty like you in this dump?”
”And you?”
Their faces, startlingly alike, were upturned, and in their eyes was the golden fluid of dawn.
”He knew. You remember that letter Lily wrote when you asked her to get you in her show?”
”Do I?”
”He found it in my pocket one night and read it, and laughed and laughed. He used to know it by heart, and he'd cackle it to me whenever he caught me red-eyed from cryin'.”
”That letter she wrote out of jealousy? He seen that?”
”Yeh! 'Stay home, dearie,' he used to sing to me, laughin' to split his sides; 'stay home, like Della did, and make happiness and a home for yourself.'”
”Gawd!”
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