Page:Booth Tarkington - Alice Adams.djvu/322

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312
ALICE ADAMS

"I don't believe he knew who you were," Adams declared.

"Think not? He called me 'Walter Adams.'"

At this Adams was silent; and Walter, after waiting a moment, said:

"Well, are you going to do anything about me? About what I told you I got to have?"

"What is it, Walter?" his mother asked, since Adams did not speak.

Walter cleared his throat, and replied in a tone as quiet as that he had used before, though with a slight huskiness, "I got to have three hundred and fifty dollars. You better get him to give it to me if you can."

Adams found his voice. "Yes," he said, bitterly, "That's all he asks! He won't do anything I ask him to, and in return he asks me for three hundred and fifty dollars! That's all!"

"What in the world!" Mrs. Adams exclaimed. "What for, Walter?"

"I got to have it," Walter said.

"But what for?"

His quiet huskiness did not alter. "I got to have it."

"But can't you tell us———"