"A freak! I wish you could have seen her—with pants on and her hair coming down her back. And there’s something mean about her, too. I don’t like her—telling them all they’d get their turns, and then putting them out, that way. And look at what she’s paying me!"
"Angie, if you’re going to work for her," said Mrs. Kennedy gravely, "you’d better hold your tongue about her. If you can take her money——”
"I only wish I had a chance to take a little more of it! I don’t see how you’ll get along, mommer."
"Oh, I’ll manage," said her mother.
She might have mentioned that she had supported her child for many, many years, and that even after Angelica had become a wage-earner she had taken very little of the girl’s money—only what had to be used to conform to Angie’s ever more and more exacting standards.
II
At ten o’clock Mrs. Russell hadn’t come yet, and Mrs. Kennedy couldn’t wait any longer. She was obliged to go out and scrub the halls. She had her best black silk blouse on, too, and she was dreadfully nervous about splashing. Every half-hour or so she ran down-stairs to her child, to see if the lady hadn’t come yet, and found Angelica scornfully waiting, reading a magazine.
At one o’clock they sat down in the kitchen to a hurried meal of tea and bread, ready to hide all traces of it at the first sound of the door-bell.
"I promised Mrs. Schell I’d do her kitchen floor this afternoon," said Mrs. Kennedy, with an anxious frown. "What do you want me to do about it, Angie?"
"Go ahead! If she comes, I’ll run up and get you."