for the sympathy
of a woman like Carlotta, or of a larger more hopeful, more tender
attitude, and he dreaded looking for anything anywhere. Besides he hated
to spare the time unless he were going to get somewhere. His work was so
pressing. But he knew he must quit it. He thought about it wearily,
wishing he were better placed in this world; and finally screwed up his
courage to leave this work, though it was not until something else was
quite safely in his hands.

CHAPTER XXX

It was only after a considerable lapse of time, when trying to live on
nine dollars a week and seeing Angela struggle almost hopelessly in her
determination to live on what he earned and put a little aside, that he
came to his senses and made a sincere effort to find something better.
During all this time he had been watching her narrowly, seeing how
systematically she did all her own house work, even under these adverse
and trying circumstances, cooking, cleaning, marketing. She made over
her old clothes, reshaping them so that they would last longer and still
look stylish. She made her own hats, doing everything in short that she
could to make the money in the bank hold out until Eugene should be on
his feet. She was willing that he should take money and buy himself
clothes when she was not willing to spend it on herself. She was living
in the hope that somehow he would reform. Consciousness of what she was
worth to him might some day strike him. Still she did not feel that
things could ever be quite the same again. She could never forget, and
neither could he.

The affair between Eugene and Carlotta, because of the various forces
that were militating against it, was now slowly drawing to a close. It
had not been able to endure all the storm and stress which followed its
discovery. For one thing, Carlotta's mother, without telling her
husband, made him feel that he had good cause to stay about, which made
it difficult for Carlotta to act. Besides she charged her daughter
constantly, much as Angela was charging Eugene, with the utmost
dissoluteness of character and was as constantly putting her on the
defensive. She was too hedged about to risk a separate apartment, and
Eugene would not accept money from her to pay for expensive indoor
entertainment. She wanted to see him but she kept hoping he would get to
the point where he would have a studio again and she could see him as a
star in his own field. That would be so much nicer.

By