I'd hang
myself first! The way to start a boy to a million dollars in this business
is to start him young in the producing-end of a strong firm."

"You--got faith in this Goldfinch & Goetz failure like you had in
'Pan-America' and 'The Chaperon,' Harry?"

"I said it five years ago and it come to pass. I say it now. For want of a
few dirty dollars I'm a poor man till I die."

"How--many dollars, Harry?"

"Don't make me say it, Millie--it makes me sick to my stummick. Three
thousand dollars would buy the whole spectacle to save it from the
storehouse. I tried Charley Ryan--he wouldn't risk a ten-spot on a
failure."

"Harry, I--oh, Harry--"

"Why, mother, what's the matter? You been overworking again, ironing my
shirts and collars when they ought to go to the laundry? You--"

"Harry, what would you say if--if I was to tell you something?"

"What is it, mother? You better get Annie in on Mondays. We 'ain't got any
more to show without her than with her."

"Harry, we--have!"

"Well, you just had an instance of the thanks you get."

"Harry, what--what would you say if I could let you have nearly all of that
three thousand?"

He regarded her above the flare of a match to his cigar-end.

"Huh?"

"If I could let you have twenty-six hundred seventeen dollars and about
fifty cents of it?"

He sat well up, the light reflecting in points off his polished glasses.

"Mother, you're joking!"

Her hands were out across the table now, almost reaching his, her face
close and screwed under the lights.

"When--when you lost out that time five years ago on 'Pan-America' and I
seen how Linger made a fortune out of it, I says to myself, 'It can never
happen again.' You remember the next January when you got your raise to
fifty and I wouldn't move out of this flat, and instead gave up having
Annie in, that was what I had in my head, Harry. It wasn't only for sending
Edwin to high school; it was for--my other boy, too, Harry, so it couldn't
happen again."

"Millie, you mean--"

"You ain't got much idea, Harry, of what I been doing. You don't know it,
honey, but, honest, I ain't bought a stitch of new clothes for five years.
You know I ain't, somehow--made friends for myself since we moved here."

"It's the hard shell town of the world!"

"You ain't had time, Harry, to ask yourself what becomes of the house
allowance, with me stinting so. Why, I--I won't spend car fare, Harry,
since 'Pan-America,' if I can help it. Th