"What do I care for my word?" she cried, and, sinking to the floor at his feet, rocked herself back and forth there. "Do you suppose I'll let my 'word' keep me from struggling for a little happiness for my children? It won't, I tell you; it won't! I'll struggle for that till I die! I will, till I die-till I die!"
He rubbed his head now instead of his knees, and, shaking all over, he got up and began with uncertain steps to pace the floor. "Hell, hell, hell!" he said. "I've got to go through that again!"
"Yes, you have!" she sobbed. "Till I die."
"Yes; that's what you been after all the time I was getting well."
"Yes, I have, and I'll keep on till I die!"
"A fine wife for a man," he said. "Beggin' a man to be a dirty dog!"
"No! To be a man—and I'll keep on till I die!"
Adams again fell back upon his last solace: he walked, half staggering, up and down the room, swearing in a rhythmic repetition.
His wife had repetitions of her own, and she kept at them in a voice that rose to a higher and higher pitch, like the sound of an old well-pump. "Till I die! Till I die! Till I die!"
She ended in a scream; and Alice, coming up the
