“Now,” his mother said sternly, as she levelled her index finger at him, “I want to tell you something! You may sneer all you please, sir, at Scroop Pegram, but he’s a man who has worked all his life for everything he has—”
“Yes,” Eugene said bitterly, “and for everything you have, too—for that’s where it’s going in the end.”
“He has made his own way since his childhood,” Eliza continued sternly and deliberately—“no one ever did anything for him, for there’s one thing sure:—there was no one in his family who was in a position to do it.—What he’s done he’s done for himself, without assistance and,” his mother said in a stern and telling voice, “without education—for he never had three months’schoolin’in his life—and today he’s got the respect of the community as much as any man I know.”
“Yes! And most of their money, too,” Eugene cried.
“You’d better not talk!” Helen said. “If I were you I wouldn’t talk! Don’t criticize other people until you show you’ve got it in you to do something for yourself,” she said.
“You! You!” Eugene panted. “I’ll show you! Talking about me when my back is turned, hey? That’s the kind you are! All right! You wait and see! I’ll show you!” he said, in a choked and trembling whisper of fury and resentment.
“All right,” Helen said in a hard and hostile voice. “I’ll wait and see. I hope you do. But you’ve got to show me that you’ve got it in you. It’s time for you to quit this foolishness and get a job! Don’t criticize other people until you show you’ve got it in you to support yourself,” she said.
“No,” said Eliza, “for we’ve done as much for you as we are able to. You’ve had as good an education as anyone could want—and now the rest is up to you,” she said sternly. “I’ve got no more money to pay out on you, so you can make your mind up to it from now on,” she said. “You’ve got to shift for yourself.”
And in the warm and living silence of the kitchen they looked at one another for a moment, all three, breathing heavily, and with hard and bitter eyes.
“Well, Gene,” Helen said, “I know. Try to forget about it. You’ll change as you grow older,” she said wearily. “We’ve all been like that. We all have these wonderful ambitions to be somebody famous, but that all changes. I had them, too,” she said. “I was going to be a great singer, and have a career in opera, but that’s all over now, and I know I never will.
