He looked away from her at the papers on the desk, eyed them for a thoughtful moment, and then said,
“I didn’t think you were as short-sighted as that. I’ll tell you fair and square that up to this I’ve thought you were a pretty smart woman.”
“Well, I guess from this on, you’ll have to put me down a fool.”
She laughed, a short, sardonic laugh, and her adversary smiled politely in somewhat absent response. With his eyes still on the papers, he said,
“No, no—I can’t agree to that. Short-sighted is the word. You’re not looking into the future, you’re not calculating on your own powers of endurance. How much longer do you think you can stand this battle with your husband and the Ryans?”
In the dead watches of the night, Berny had asked herself this question, and found no answer to it. She tried to laugh again, but it was harder and less mirthful than before.
The old man leaned forward, shaking an admonitory forefinger at her.
“Don’t you know, young woman, that’s a pretty wearing situation? Don’t you know to live in a state of perpetual strife will break down the strongest spirit? The dropping of water will wear away a stone. You can’t stand the state of siege and warfare you’ve got yourself into much longer. Your rage is carrying you along now. You’re mad as a whole hive full of hornets and the heat of it’s keeping you going, furnishing fuel to the engines, so to speak. But you can’t keep up such a clip. You’ll break to pieces and you’ll break suddenly. Then what’ll happen? Why, the Ryans’ll come with a big broom and sweep the pieces out. They won’t leave one little scrap behind. That flat on Sacramento Street will be swept as clean of you as if you’d never had your dresses hanging in the cupboard or your toothbrush on the wash-stand. Old Delia’s a great housekeeper. When she gets going with a broom there’s not a speck escapes her.”
His narrowed eyes looked into hers with that boring steadiness that she was beginning to know. He was not smiling now, rather he looked a man who knew he was talking of very momentous things and wanted his companion to know it too.
“That’s all talk,” Berny snapped. “If that’s all you’ve got to say to me, I’d better be going.”