“No.”
I said, “No wonder you didn’t sleep.”
Bertha said, “It wasn’t the noise. I was just too damned mad to sleep. The idea of little hussies prowling around the street with no sense of shame. Oh, well, we live and learn.”
“Are you going to check, out of that apartment?” I asked.
“Check out of it!” Bertha exclaimed. “Don’t be a fool! The rent’s paid! ”
“I know, but after all there’s no use staying in an apartment where you can’t sleep.”
Bertha’s lips came together in a firm, straight line. “Sometimes I could grab you and shake the teeth out of you. One of these days your damned extravagance will bust this partnership.”
“Are we going broke?” I asked.
“We won’t go into all that again,” Bertha said hastily. “You’ve been lucky. Some day you’ll quit being lucky, then you’ll come whining to me, asking me to put up cash to finance the partnership over a tough spot. Right then’s when you’ll learn something about Bertha Louise Cool, and don’t you ever forget it.”
I said, “It’s an intriguing thought. It makes the possibility of bankruptcy sound almost alluring.”