"Work for it!" he cried, with a laugh, and immediately afterward turned savage. "Well, ain't I willing?"
"Yes, you show yourself willing," said Mrs. Flower, bitterly; "hanging round public-houses, and loafing from morning to night!"
"Think I'm going to work for a tanner an hour?" demanded Mr. Flower. "Not me! I'll have my rights, I will!"
"While we starve!"
"Starve! When you can get washing to do, and live on the fat of the land! If I was a woman, I'd rejoice in such clean work."
"And don't I do it? Haven't I sat up night after night, wearing my fingers to the bone for you?"
"For me? Oh, oh! I like that!"
"Yes, for you," repeated Mrs. Flower, thoroughly roused. "And what's the good of it all? You drink away every penny I earn, you sot; and you call yourself a man!"
"I'll call you something, if you don't cut your stick! I wonder what I married you for?"
"I'll tell you. You married me to make me work for you; and you're not the only one that speaks soft to a woman till he's got her in his clutches. There ought to be a law for such as you."