Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/197

185 paid fer," he said, "an' we won't never pay fer it unless they take back what yuh don't like, an' give yuh somethin' else 'at yuh do." He passed the book to her to keep, as the treasurer of the household. She turned it over in her hands as if it had been a jewel-box. "You better look out," she said with a tremulous laugh. "I 'll break you!"

Carney looked at her, solemnly trustful. "A' right. We go broke together now."

And suddenly she put her hands up to her face and began to sob.

She was somewhat tearful again in the morning when he left her to go to his work; and she hung out of the front window to wave him good-by as he turned the corner far below her. He was taking word to Sturm & Bergman's that their cloak-model had left them; and she drew in from the window-sill, and turned to look down the little flat, with a new light in her face, all the domestic instincts stirring in her chokingly. The inherited desire to be protected, sheltered, housed in respect and love, took her in its fulfilment with a hysteric swelling of the heart; and she clasped her hands under her breast and drew in a long breath, her eyes still shining with tears, her thin lips set in that hungry pout with which a child asks for either food or kisses.

She walked slowly back to the dining-room and sat in Carney's chair, stroking the handle of his knife caressingly. And when she was taking up the dishes to