Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/255

 Things went rapidly from bad to worse. It was a cat and dog’s life entirely. And at last Kathleen, in a determined revolt against the domestic situation, put the house in an agent’s hands for sale, and started out to look for a small flat in which she could live economically on her bit of money and make it impossible for her relatives to “impose” on her any longer.

“Oh, now,” Mrs. Cook consoled the old man, “people has to squabble. It gives them somethin’ t’ occupy their minds. It makes life int’restin’—a good hot quar’l. You must n’t take it so to heart.”

“ ’Tain’t that, m’am,” he said pathetically, “but between ’em I ’ll soon be on the streets. They neither av thim wants me.”

“Well, that ’s the way o’ nature, Mr. Cooney.” She poured him the last cup of tea. “It ain’t provided that a parent should be dependin’ to his young ones. Those gurls ’ll be sweet enough to their own childurn—an’ like as not they ’ll get the same dose they ’re givin’ you. It ’s the wisdom o’ God. If we