You ought to know. There've been holdups."
"Pooh! Two people. And not near here, either, but miles away, up on Sixtieth Street."
"Joseph, are you or are you not going to cash this hcck?"
"No," I said.
Perhaps I should have told her about my experience with Mr. Frink. Then, at any rate, the reason for my refusalwould have been clear. But she would have been just As angry. She would have been in the right, hence very severe. And, although she would have excused me from turning to the bank, it is likely that she would have made things hard for me in other ways. Therefore I said nothing about it.
"All right," she said. "The check will stay in the drawer. We won't eat."
"I can stand it if you can."
"I'm quite sure you can stand it. You'd have to be a weak as… as Gandhi before you'd give in.
You're mulish."
"I don't think you have much right to call me mulish.
As if you weren't twice as stubborn. I don't feel like fighting about it, Ira. That's the truth. I can't go. I have my reasons."
"You always have reasons, and with principles.
Capital
P,"
" she said, tracing the letter on the air with her finger.
"Don't be a fool. Do you think it's pleasant to walk up to a bank window and be turned away?"
"Are you sure you didn't get into a fight of some kind over there?" she asked shrewdly. "I have a suspicion @.'
"Your suspicion is wrong. You always jump to the worst conclusion you can think of. If I wanted to do that… well."
"Well?"
"I'd say plenty."
"For example."
"You want me to do all kinds of things I was never expected to do before. Now, why this sudden fear of being robbed?
I could say you trumped it up. You've been carryingmoney for years, and larger amounts, too.
Suddenly it frightens you. Well, the reason is that you want me to run errands."
"Errands?"
"Yes."
"Let's have the whole thing. You must have a principle hidden somewhere."
"Don't make fun of me, Iva. Things have changed.
You've become the breadwinner, and whether you know it or not you resent the fact that I stay at home while you go to work every morning. So you think up things for me to do. You want me to earn my keep."
"Of all the things to say." Iva grew white.
"I never know what you're going to do. You go along quietly and all of a sudden you come out with something, something @. @. it's a terrible thing to say."
"It happens to be true."
"It isn't."
"You aren't aware of it yourself, Ira. I'm not blaming you. But you are the provider. After all, it's bound to have an effect on you'.
"Yo're having an effect on me. Y'ro making me sick."
"No, listen to me, Iva," I persisted.
"I'm not making this up. I see it and feel it constantly. I know you don't want it to be true, but it is, nevertheless.
You take it for granted that I have nothing to do. Every morning you leave half a dozen orders for me. And just a while ago you mentioned that I read the papers."
"How you twist everything around," Ira said bitterly. @'
"Not as much as you think."
She reached for her handkerchief.
"Just as soon as I take up a subject you don't like, you begin to cry. Don't you want me to say anything about this?"
"I can depend on you not to keep quiet when you think you're being wronged. You think everybody's trying to take advantage of you. Even I @. @. @.@? and she could not continue.
"This is what happens whenever I bring up a disagreeable subject. I'm just trying to point out something I don't think you're aware of. I thought you wanted me to tell you such things. You never used to object."
"You never used to be so mean and ugly-tempered.
You…" Now she broke off and began to cry.
"Jesus, Jesus! Can we never have a talk without a flood of tears? It's easy for you to cry.
But what can I do? I'm getting out. I should get out for good. This is no sort of life. Stop that crying!" She did try to stop; her efforts ended in a grotesque sound brought up from her throat. She rolled over on the bed and concealed her face from Up to this point in our quarrel, Yanaker had given several protesting coughs, and now I heard his footsteps in the hall as he went to the bathroom and then, just as I had expected, the sound through the open door, of his splash, growing louder as he trained his stream to the center where the water was deepest. Shuffling off my slippers, I stepped out stealthily and advanced on his silhouette. When he turned, hearing me, my foot was already in the door. He had neglected to turn on the light, but I could see perfectly clearly by the small bulb outside. In the semidark, a look of panic sprang to his moist, drunken eyes, and he pushed against me, but I was solidly planted on the threshold.
"Took you in it at last, didn't I!" I exclaimed. "You damned old whisky-head.
By God, I've had more than I can stand. There's a dying woman downstairs, and you slam around here all boozed up, raising as much hell as you please."
"Joseph," Ira called in a strained voice.
She had come into the hall. "Joseph!"
"It's about time I told him off. I'm fed up.
Completely.
Do you think you can get away with it forever?" I shouted at. him. "Kicking up a racket in the middle of the night, hoicking, forcing us to listen when you make your busisy crowbait? Iggidn't you ever learn to shut the door when you went to the toilet?
By God, you kept it shut tight enough the night you set the house on fire!"
"Mister!" I heard Mrs. Bartlett cry from the stairs. A door dosed. Ira had gone back into the room, and similarsounds told me that either Mrs. Fessman or Miss Ling had come out to listen and then had quickly retreated. There were further noises from Captain Briggs' apart. ment. I heard a man's tread in the passage above. "And stealing, besides," I went on. "Steal?" he said weakly.
"Stealing," I repeated. "Then going before the priest at St. Thomas the Apostle and standing in my socks and stinking of my wife's perfume. I've got a good mind to go and tell them about it there. How would you like that?" He stared dumbly, his head a long blob of shadow in the pewter gleam of the mirror on the medicine chest. Then he came forward a pace, hopefully, for the Captain was behind me in his dressing gown.
"What are you doing?" he said sternly. Mrs.
Briggs appeared at his side. "Fasten yourself up," he ordered Vanaker, who thereupon took shelter behind the door.
"Either he moves, or my wife and I We refuse to put up with him," I said.
"Now," said the Captain. "You've done enough shouting. Calm down. They can hear you all over the house."
"It's an outrage," his wife breathed. "With my mother downstairs."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Briggs," I said in a lower voice. "But I had as much as I could stand from him. I admit I lost myself."
"I should say."
"Just a minute, Mil," the Captain interrupted. And then to me: "We can't allow behavior of that sort here, and @.@. @.@?
"What about his behavior?" I said excitedly.
"It seems he can do as he pleases, but if I protest I am the one who's blamed. Why don't you ask him about it? What's he skulking in there for?"
"If you had complaints, you should have brought them to me or to my wife instead of making a row. This is not a tavern'
"I put up with his indecency. I don't care.
It's that kind of inconsiderateness," I said disconnectedly. "This is terrible, shameful," said Mrs. Briggs.
"We can't have this," said the Captain, "we can't have it. It's the worst kind of rowdyism!"
"Howard," remonstrated Mrs. Briggs.
"You're the one that's shouting now, Captain," I said. "Don't tell me how to talk," the Captain exploded.