登陆注册
15441200000058

第58章 CHAPTER VII(1)

Billy quarreled with good fortune. He suspected he was too prosperous on the wages he received. What with the accumulating savings account, the paying of the monthly furniture installment and the house rent, the spending money in pocket, and the good fare he was eating, he was puzzled as to how Saxon managed to pay for the goods used in her fancy work. Several times he had suggested his inability to see how she did it, and been baffled each time by Saxon's mysterious laugh.

"I can't see how you do it on the money," he was contending one evening.

He opened his mouth to speak further, then closed it and for five minutes thought with knitted brows.

"Say," he said, "what's become of that frilly breakfast cap you was workin' on so hard, I ain't never seen you wear it, and it was sure too big for the kid."

Saxon hesitated, with pursed lips and teasing eyes. With her, untruthfulness had always been a difficult matter. To Billy it was impossible. She could see the cloud-drift in his eyes deepening and his face hardening in the way she knew so well when he was vexed.

"Say, Saxon, you ain't ... you ain't ... sellin' your work?"

And thereat she related everything, not omitting Mercedes Higgins' part in the transaction, nor Mercedes Higgins' remarkable burial trousseau. But Billy was not to be led aside by the latter. In terms anything but uncertain he told Saxon that she was not to work for money.

"But I have so much spare time, Billy, dear," she pleaded.

He shook his head.

"Nothing doing. I won't listen to it. I married you, and I'll take care of you. Nobody can say Bill Roberts' wife has to work.

And I don't want to think it myself. Besides, it ain't necessary."

"But Billy--" she began again.

"Nope. That's one thing I won't stand for, Saxon. Not that I don't like fancy work. I do. I like it like hell, every bit you make, but I like it on YOU. Go ahead and make all you want of it, for yourself, an' I'll put up for the goods. Why, I'm just whistlin' an' happy all day long, thinkin' of the boy an' seein' you at home here workin' away on all them nice things. Because I know how happy you are a-doin' it. But honest to God, Saxon, it'd all be spoiled if I knew you was doin' it to sell. You see, Bill Roberts' wife don't have to work. That's my brag--to myself, mind you. An' besides, it ain't right."

"You're a dear," she whispered, happy despite her disappointment.

"I want you to have all you want," be continued. "An' you're goin' to get it as long as I got two hands stickin' on the ends of my arms. I guess I know how good the things are you wear--good to me, I mean, too. I'm dry behind the ears, an' maybe I've learned a few things I oughtn't to before I knew you. But I know what I'm talkin' about, and I want to say that outside the clothes down underneath, an' the clothes down underneath the outside ones, I never saw a woman like you. Oh--"

He threw up his hands as if despairing of ability to express what he thought and felt, then essayed a further attempt.

"It's not a matter of bein' only clean, though that's a whole lot. Lots of women are clean. It ain't that. It's something more, an' different. It's ... well, it's the look of it, so white, an' pretty, an' tasty. It gets on the imagination. It's something I can't get out of my thoughts of you. I want to tell you lots of men can't strip to advantage, an' lots of women, too. But you--well, you're a wonder, that's all, and you can't get too many of them nice things to suit me, and you can't get them too nice.

"For that matter, Saxon, you can just blow yourself. There's lots of easy money layin' around. I'm in great condition. Billy Murphy pulled down seventy-five round iron dollars only last week for puttin' away the Pride of North Beach. That's what ha paid us the fifty back out of."

But this time it was Saxon who rebelled.

"There's Carl Hansen," Billy argued. "The second Sharkey, the alfalfa sportin' writers are callin' him. An' he calls himself Champion of the United States Navy. Well, I got his number. He's just a big stiff. I've seen 'm fight, an' I can pass him the sleep medicine just as easy. The Secretary of the Sportin' Life Club offered to match me. An' a hundred iron dollars in it for the winner. And it'll all be yours to blow in any way you want.

What d'ye say?"

"If I can't work for money, you can't fight," was Saxon's ultimatum, immediately withdrawn. "But you and I don't drive bargains. Even if you'd let me work for money, I wouldn't let you fight. I've never forgotten what you told me about how prizefighters lose their silk. Well, you're not going to lose yours. It's half my silk, you know. And if you won't fight, I won't work--there. And more, I'll never do anything you don't want me to, Billy."

"Same here," Billy agreed. "Though just the same I'd like most to death to have just one go at that squarehead Hansen." He smiled with pleasure at the thought. "Say, let's forget it all now, an' you sing me 'Harvest Days' on that dinky what-you-may-call-it."

When she had complied, accompanying herself on the ukulele, she suggested his weird "Cowboy's Lament." In some inexplicable way of love, she had come to like her husband's one song. Because he sang it, she liked its inanity and monotonousness; and most of all, it seemed to her, she loved his hopeless and adorable flatting of every note. She could even sing with him, flatting as accurately and deliciously as he. Nor did she undeceive him in his sublime faith.

"I guess Bert an' the rest have joshed me all the time," he said.

"You and I get along together with it fine," she equivoeated; for in such matters she did not deem the untruth a wrong.

Spring was on when the strike came in the railroad shops. The Sunday before it was called, Saxon and Billy had dinner at Bert's house. Saxon's brother came, though he had found it impossible to bring Sarah, who refused to budge from her household rut. Bert was blackly pessimistic, and they found him singing with sardonic glee:

"Nobody loves a mil-yun-aire.

Nobody likes his looks.

Nobody'll share his slightest care, He classes with thugs and crooks.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 藏书纪事诗

    藏书纪事诗

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 云中歌之陌上花开

    云中歌之陌上花开

    云中歌之陌上花开,这一情节故事让我们令人很难忘………”
  • 霸道爵爷:绝色腹黑大小姐

    霸道爵爷:绝色腹黑大小姐

    眼睛一闭一睁!哎呀妈呀!!穿越了!!!不过没关系,可谁能告诉我,这一屁股的祸是怎么回事!?不过不过还是没关系,但是为啥我上街“一不小心”挑逗了一个“冰美人”咋就私定终身啦!?她,一朝穿越成了五大世家——朱雀世家家主最疼爱的孙女儿,可遭人嫉妒,没关系我自有办法整治她。——她热情如火。他,身份神秘,只知手下叫他“爵爷”——他冷酷如冰。
  • 悟道至极

    悟道至极

    天生的废材,为自己的梦而努力,别人练气我悟道,别人锻体我修心,看十八年之功一朝顿悟
  • 丞相大人笑一个

    丞相大人笑一个

    现代富家女卓宁一觉醒来,穿越成少年丞相的奴婢。看着丞相大人万年不变的僵尸脸,卓宁笑着:“丞相大人笑一个!”
  • 我中了你的毒

    我中了你的毒

    他的毒像酒精,一喝进嘴里,淡淡酒香,浓郁我心。她的毒像福茗茶,只有热水慢慢泡开才能尝到一丝丝耐人寻味的清甜
  • 傲视曙光

    傲视曙光

    前世,他是一代枭雄,却被视为大魔王,今生,他天生灵力,却因拥有多属性而无法修炼,不甘平庸,他自创功法,突破瓶颈,修炼问天决,修为大增,八大属性万箭齐发,如虎添翼,且看废材逆天改命,所向披靡,天下无敌!
  • 妃常搞笑夫君哩别闹

    妃常搞笑夫君哩别闹

    叶瑾,资深主持人一枚。经过多年打拼成为节目一姐,本以为从此钱不愁花,美男大把抓。坑爹的是:相依为命的哥哥被亡命之徒绑票了,她却在拿钱赎人途中被人打晕了,于是兄妹俩齐齐穿越。好吧她认了!她决定与哥哥携手重新走向人生巅峰,然后找个男票,生俩儿砸。可是还没走上人生巅峰。男票向她求婚了,肚里也有了。嗷嗷!说好的奋斗呢?这也就算了。接着这个男票天天赖着她不说,天天还给她暖床?还要替她更衣?好吧,这个她还可以接受。嘤嘤~说好男票是高冷属性的,怎么突然变成逗比了?这时慕时卿眼泪汪汪凑了过来:娘子,你是在嫌弃我吗?叶瑾一脸花痴样急忙摇头:哪有?夫君是天底下最好的人了!
  • 武侠时代杀手

    武侠时代杀手

    三十万字的小说,五万个省略号。。。。。。。。。。。。。。
  • 网游之无悔神话

    网游之无悔神话

    当张楚凡开始悔恨过往的人生时,世界发生了些许变化——虚拟网游当道!这一次,张楚凡立誓不再后悔。生如夏花,死若秋叶,缔造属于自己的无悔神话!