"'Why, it's wonderful!' says she. 'I didn't know he'd improved so.'

"'I hear that his mother is doing her own work,' says the Lady
Henshaw, with a forced smile.

"'Yes, think of it,' I says. 'The woman is earning her daily
bread--actually helpin' her husband. Did you ever hear o' such a
thing! I'll have to scratch 'em off my list. It's too uncommon.
It ain't respectable.'

"Her Ladyship began to suspect me an' retreated with her chin in
the air. She'd had enough.

"I thought that would do an' drew out o' the game. Lizzie looked
confident. She seemed to have something up her sleeve besides that
lovely arm o' hers.

"I went home, an' two days later Sam looked me up again. Then the
secret came out o' the bag. He'd heard that I had some money in
the savings-banks over at Bridgeport payin' me only three and a
half per cent., an' he wanted to borrow it an' pay me six per cent.
His generosity surprised me. It was not like Sam.

"'What's the matter with you?' I asked. 'Is it possible that your
profits have all gone into gasoline an' rubber an' silk an'
education an' hardwood finish an' human fat?'

"'Well, it costs so much to live,' he says, 'an' the wholesalers
have kept liftin' the prices on me. Now there's the meat
trust--their prices are up thirty-five per cent.'