“Ah-h,” said Ben with an ugly laugh, “to hell with them.”
“I’ll vow, child!” she said fretfully. “You’ll break us up. Have you got that porch light on, too?” Her eyes probed about suspiciously. “What on earth do you mean by burning up all that electricity!”
“Oh, listen to this, won’t you?” said Ben, jerking his head upward with a jeering laugh.
“I can’t afford to pay all these bills,” said Eliza angrily, with a smart shake of her head. “And you needn’t think I can. I’m not going to put up with it. It’s up to us all to economize.”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” Ben jeered. “Economize! What for? So you can give it all away to Old Man Doak for one of his lots?”
“Now, you needn’t get on your high-horse,” said Eliza. “You’re not the one who has to pay the bills. If you did, you’d laugh out of the other side of your mouth. I don’t like any such talk. You’ve squandered every penny you’ve earned because you’ve never known the value of a dollar.”
“Ah-h!” he said. “The value of a dollar! By God, I know the value of a dollar better than you do. I’ve had a little something out of mine, at any rate. What have you had out of yours? I’d like to know that. What the hell’s good has it ever been to any one? Will you tell me that?” he yelled.
“You may sneer all you like,” said Eliza sternly, “but if it hadn’t been for your papa and me accumulating a little property, you’d never have had a roof to call your own. And this is the thanks I get for all my drudgery in my old age,” she said, bursting into tears. “Ingratitude! Ingratitude!”
“Ingratitude!” he sneered. “What’s there to be grateful for? You don’t think I’m grateful to you or the old man for anything, do you? What have you ever given me? You let me go to hell from the time I was twelve years old. No one has ever given me a damned nickel since then. Look at your kid here. You’ve let him run around the country like a crazy man. Did you think enough of him this summer to send him a post-card? Did you know where he was? Did you give a damn, as long as there was fifty cents to be made out of your lousy boarders?”
“Ingratitude!” she whispered huskily, with a boding shake of the head. “A day of reckoning cometh.”
