"Thank-you," was all she said, and she said that coldly. Then she returned home with the money and paid Joe.
An hour later Ernie came in.
Ruth was standing at the table waiting him, cold, tall, and inexorable.
"Anything?" she asked.
Surly in self-defence, he shook his head and sat down.
She gave him not so much as a crumb of sympathy.
"No good settin down," she told him. "You ain't done yet. You'll take that clock down to Goldmann's after dark, and you'll get sixteen shillings for it. If he won't give you that for it, you'll pop your own great coat."
Ernie stared at her. He was uncertain whether to show fight or not.
"Dad's clock?—what he give me when I married?"
"Yes. Dad's clock."