I will give you
the truth for once. Mr. Dodd, you have been bought and
sold."
"Mamie," cried Jim, "no more of this! It's me you're
striking; it's only me you hurt. You don't know, you
cannot understand these things. Why, to-day, if it
hadn't been for Loudon, I couldn't have looked you in
the face. He saved my honesty."
"I have heard plenty of this talk before," she replied.
"You are a sweet-hearted fool, and I love you for it.
But I am a clear-headed woman; my eyes are open, and I
understand this man's hypocrisy. Did he not come here
to-day and pretend he would take a situation--pretend
he would share his hard-earned wages with us until you
were well? Pretend!
It makes me furious! His wages! a share of his wages!
That would have been your pittance, that would have
been your share of the FLYING SCUD--you who worked
and toiled for him when he was a beggar in the streets
of Paris. But we do not want your charity; thank God,
I can work for my own husband! See what it is to have
obliged a gentleman! He would let you pick him up when
he was begging; he would stand and look on, and let you
black his shoes, and sneer at you.
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