Page:Steadfast Heart.djvu/22

 He turned with bared teeth. “Shet up. ’Tain’t none of your business where I got it. Honest labor, that’s where. Earned it with the sweat of my brow, and that’s all the gratitude I git from a ongrateful wife—accusin’ me of stealin’ it.”

“Oh, Titus, you haven’t been and done somethin’ you can be sent to the penitentiary for?”

“Didn’t I tell you to hush your mouth? Who’s a-goin’ to any penitentiaries? Not a Burke that’s set on a log with a governor and that’s goin’ to see a king. Missis Burke, you pain me deep.”

The woman struggled to her feet, her eyes blazing with unnatural light, her mouth twisted with fear. As she approached the dim light entering the open door, her face became more clearly visible. The skin was tinted with yellow, it sagged, and under her eyes were loose folds of skin. The eyes were black and glittering, not dead and dull as they had been an hour before, and the thought back of them was not now fear or rage, but infinitely more sordid than these, for it was cupidity.

“How much?” she demanded hoarsely. “How much money you got there? I want to see it. I want to hold it in my hand. Titus, you just let me touch it…. Ain’t any of it for me?”

“Git back where you b’long…. This here don’t concern you. I earned it hard and I’m