me till Rocket closes down.
Come on."

And the two passed out into the night.

CHAPTER XIV

THE BREAKING POINT

Eve and Will were at supper. The girl's brown eyes had lost their old
gentle smile. Their soft depths no longer contained that well of
girlish hope, that trusting joy of life. It seemed as if the curtain
of romance had been torn aside, and the mouldering skeleton of life
had been laid bare to her. There was trouble and pain in her look,
there was fear, too; nor was it quite plain the nature of her fear. It
may have been that fear of the future which comes to natures where
love is the mainspring of responsibility. It may have been the fear of
the weaker vessel, where harshness and brutality are threatened. It
may have been a fear inspired by health already undermined by anxiety
and worry. The old happy light was utterly gone from her eyes as she
silently partook of the frugal supper her own hands had prepared.

Will Henderson moodily devoured his food at the opposite end of the
table. The third of their household was not there. Elia rarely took
his meals with them. He preferred them by himself, for he hated and
dreaded Will's tongue, which, though held in some check when he was
sober, never failed to sting the boy when Silas Rocket's whiskey had
done its work.

The meal was nearly finished, and husband and wife had exchanged not a
single word. Eve wished to talk; there was so much she wanted to say
to him. The flame of her love still burned in her gentle bosom, but it
was a flame sorely blown about by the storm winds of their brief
married life. But somehow she could not utter the words she wanted to.
There was no encouragement. There was a definite but intangible bar to
their expression. The brutal silence of the man chilled her, and
frightened her.

Finally it was he who spoke, and he made some sort of effort to hide
the determination lying behind his words.

"How much money have you got, Eve?" he demanded, pushing his plate
away with a movement which belied his tone. It was a question which
had a familiar ring to the ears of the troubled girl.

"Thirty dollars," she said patiently. Then she sighed.

The man promptly threw aside all further mask.

"For God's sake don't sigh like that! You'll be sniveling directly.
One would think I was doin' you an injury asking you a simple
question."

"It's not that, Will. I'm thinking of what's going to happen when
that's gone. It's got to last us