FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  
uck a dead level. One month business would be pretty good; the next he would make almost nothing. But the average was always the same, and always a little less than they spent. The note at Jim Blaisdell's bank and the little loans from Dick Holden kept slowly piling up, and though neither Jim nor Dick ever dunned him, the thought of his debts weighed heavily on David's heart. It was worse than if they had had a steady income. They were kept zigzagging between hope and disappointment, and when they had money, it was often spent foolishly. David did his best to save. His suits and overcoat had shiny spots. He smoked only cheap tobacco that burned his tongue. He gave up even the dairy lunch, saying that two meals a day were enough for any man. He walked, rain or shine, to and from his office, and bought no more books. But the sum of these savings seemed pitifully small. Shirley, too, did without things during the lean months. But when a fee came in she could never say no to her wants. "We must have this. We must do that," she would say. "Dear, don't you think we'd better go slow?" he would venture. "Oh, what's the use of having money, if not to get what we want?" "We could use it to pay a little to Jim and--" "Oh, let Jim and Dick wait. They can afford it. I've had to do without so much I think I've a right to this little spree. And I _hate_ to wait for things. If I wait, they lose all their fun." It always ended in her having her own way. But sometimes David wondered whether she would have lost interest in him, too, if she had had to wait. For he saw that another goblin had come unbidden into their home: Discontent. He had learned to seek and always found the wistful look with which she regarded their callers' pretty gowns or heard tales of jolly dinners at the club. (Months ago the club had been dropped.) And he knew that in her heart she was drawing comparisons. Once she said, "It wasn't like this when Maizie and I were together." She did not guess the barb she left quivering in his heart. Dick Holden was making no such heavy weather of it. He was even so busy that little odds and ends of his work were turned over to David, crusts for which the latter was as grateful as the Lazaruses always have been. But this suggested another comparison to Shirley. "Dick Holden gets business and makes money, and everybody says he's not half so clever as you. How does he do it?" "He works
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Holden
 

things

 

Shirley

 

business

 

pretty

 
interest
 
afford
 

unbidden

 
goblin
 

wondered


turned

 

weather

 
quivering
 

making

 
crusts
 

clever

 
grateful
 
Lazaruses
 

suggested

 

comparison


callers

 

regarded

 

learned

 

Discontent

 

wistful

 

dinners

 

Months

 

Maizie

 

comparisons

 

dropped


drawing

 
heavily
 

steady

 

weighed

 

dunned

 
thought
 

income

 
zigzagging
 

overcoat

 
foolishly

disappointment
 

average

 
slowly
 
piling
 

Blaisdell

 

months

 
pitifully
 

savings

 
venture
 

tongue