Pen was significantly silent.
"A while ago you would not touch that money with a poker!" he burst out.
"It is not easy to ask for it," she murmured.
"How much do you want?"
"Five hundred dollars!" said Pen with her heart in her mouth.
"Five hundred dollars!" he stormed. "Five hundred dollars! Why you could go to your Cousin Laura Lee's and back for twenty!"
"Wherever I went I would need clothes," said Pen.
"I offered you money for clothes, and you scorned it!"
"I'm sorry now. I have thought better of it."
"Oh, you have, have you? Well, permit me to remind you that the clothes were to wear here, and not to go away in!" He started out of the room blustering noisily to cover his retreat. "Five hundred dollars! To ruin your chances! Never heard of such folly! Never speak to me of this again! Five hundred dollars!"