the hard grip of their furious hands, only to bulge out in new shapes and forms and combinations—which flowed, gave, withdrew, receded and advanced, but which remained itself for ever, and beat everything before it in the end.
Now, for a moment, as Luke saw the car he was goaded into the old madness of despair. Thrusting his fingers through his hair, and with a look of desperate exasperation in his tortured eyes, he began: “M-m-m-mama—M-m-m-mama—I beg of you, I—wy I entreat you, —w-w-w-wy I beseech you either to s-s-s-sell that God-damn thing or—wy—g-g-g-get a little s-s-service out of it.”
“Well, now,” Eliza said quickly and in a conciliatory tone, “we’ll see about it!”
“S-s-s-see about it!” he stammered bitterly. “See about it! In G-g-g-God’s name, what is there to see about? M-m-m-mama, the car’s there—there—there—” he muttered crazily, poking his clumsy finger in a series of jerky and convulsive movements in the direction of the carriage house. “It’s there!” he croaked madly. “C-c-c-can’t you understand that? W-w-w-wy, it’s rotting away on its God-damn wheels—M-m-m-mama, will you please get it into your head that it’s not g-g-g-going to do you or anyone else any good unless you take it out and use it?”
“Well, as I say now”—she began hastily, and in a diplomatic tone of voice.
“M-m-m-m-mama”—he began, again thrusting at his hair—“wy, I beg of you—I beseech you to sell it, g-g-g-give it away, or wy-wy-wy try to get a little use out of it!—Let me take it out and drive you round the block in it—w-w-w-wy—just once! Just once! F-f-f-frankly, I’d like to have the satisfaction of knowing you’d had that much out of it!” he said. “Wy, I’ll p-p-p-pay for the p-p-p-petrol, if that’s what’s worrying you! Wy, I’ll do it with pleasure!… But just let me take it out of that G-g-g-g-God-damn place if all—if all—wy if all I do is drive you to the corner! Now, please!” he begged, with an almost frantic note of entreaty.
“Why, no, boy!” she cried out in a startled tone. “We can’t do that!”
“C-c-c-can’t do that!” he stuttered bitterly. “Wy, in G-g-g-g-God’s name, why can’t we?”
“I’d be afra-a-id!” she said with a little troubled smile, as she shook her head. “Hm! I’d be afraid!”
“Wy-wy-wy-wy afraid?” he yelled. “Wy, what’s there to be afraid of, in God’s name?”
“I’d be afraid you’d do something to it,” she said with her troubled smile. “
