"
Sadie Barnet smiled through the shadows in her eyes.
"Jerry! Say, ain't this beau-tiful! A upright piano and gold, chairs
and--Why, Jerry! why, Jerry!"
"And look in here, the dining-room. Her and her mother shopped three
weeks to get this oak set, and see this fancy cabinet full of china.
Slick, ain't it?"
Her fingers curled in a soft, clutch around her throat as if her breath
came too fast.
"Jerry, it--it's just grand."
He marshaled her in all the pride of ownership.
"Look, butler's pantry, exposed plumbing."
"Oh! Oh!"
"Kitchen."
"Oh! Oh!"
"Here, Cloonan. I told you I was going to bring somebody out to take
hold and sit on you and your bills, didn't I? This lady's coming out
here tomorrow, bag and baggage. Hand over your account-book to her and I
bet she does better with it. See that you fix us up in honeymoon style,
too. Bag and baggage we're coming. Savvy?"
The figure beside the ill-kept stove, bowl in lap and paring potatoes
with the long fleshless hands of a bird, raised a still more
fleshless face.
"Howdy!"
"Cloonan's been running this shebang for two years now, Peachy, and
there ain't nothing much she can't learn you about my ways.
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