Carmella Commands
Don’t get so interested in this up-up stuff that you forget—well, you know, other things.”
Carmella laughed joyously.
“Anybody that has to be uplifted isn’t worth it,” she said. “These damn Americanizationers make me sick. I’m through with this job the day I finish school. I’m making money now, and not hurting myself. But I’m never going to forget that I’m a member of the firm—or going to be.”
Dixon restrained his impulse to take her in his arms.
But⸺
All the way to Hope House Carmella felt as if she had been thus seized and held. And she loved the feeling.
After Dixon had gone away, Maria sat on the arm of Tommaso’s chair, and spoke of the pay that Carmella was to have.
“It is not too much,” said Tommaso.
“N-no!” admitted Maria. Though privately she was bewildered at the sum. “But now she shall buy her own clothes, is it not so?”
Tommaso puffed his pipe in long silence. Then:
“She shall put her money in the bank for the time. It is I who shall pay for what she needs while she is a child. Thank God I can!”
“But she earns so much,” urged Maria.
“Not too much! Remember, wife of mine, that our daughter knows much. She is worth much. And this is America. She gets what she is worth.”
[276]
