Page:Fighting Back (1924).pdf/21

 and sunny outside, but I can feel there's a heavy storm brewin' right in that room!

"Dolores," says the Kid quietly, "boxing is the one thing at which I am proficient, and it offers the quickest route to financial independence for me. I can earn more with a few bouts than I could in a few years at anything else I might undertake. I'm not going back to the ring because I like it, but because it is the only alternative for me in this crisis!"

"I do not agree that the situation is as desperate as all that," says Dolores. "And I most certainly object to your becoming a prize fighter again under any circumstances whatever! You know that I have an income from father that—"

"That has nothing to do with me!" the Kid finishes for her, jumpin' up suddenly and beginnin' a nervous pacin' of the room.

Dolores reads the signs and tries another lead.

"Well, you might at least consider me, Kane," she says. "You might think of my—of our—social position and what will happen to it if you become a professional boxer again. Then there are my political aspirations—what of those? I threw myself into politics to please you, Kane—you needn't smile, I did! I didn't want to just live on your money. I wanted a career of my own, knowing how you detest parasites of either sex. Now, when it is almost certain that I will be nominated for State senator from our district, you are contemplating a step that will ruin everything!"

Kid Roberts stops his patrol of the room and looks down at her.