“It’s from Jimmy,” said Lily, beside herself. “He thinks of me, Jimmy does, while you leave me here to starve. It’s ... it’s for the law-costs.”
“Oh, that’s another thing!” said Trampy, putting the note in his pocket.
“Let the money be!” cried Lily, leaping out of bed. “Don’t you touch it!”
“Everything here belongs to me, I should think,” said Trampy, a little more calmly, already overcome with drunken drowsiness. “Everything, even a dear little wifie,” he continued, putting his snout under Lily’s disgusted nose.
But she gave a movement of revulsion so spontaneous that Trampy turned pale under the insult:
“W-what! N-no love?” he stammered. “I’m not used to that. I can get l-l-love for the asking ... at the ca-ca-café ... or the th-theater ... or anywhere.”
And Trampy, making a false step, caught hold of the curtain and drew it back.
In the pitiless light of the morning, he appeared to Lily like a drowned man, with a puffed-out face, swollen eyes and wan cheeks. To think that she belonged to that! Lily spat at him in contempt. Oh, rather sleep with lizards and guinea-pigs than that; rather with a woolly dog, like Poland, that Parisienne! Oh, to get rid of him and be free again, thought Lily, never again to have Trampy before her eyes! And, suddenly, her mind was made up. She dressed herself hurriedly.
“Where are you going?” asked Trampy.
“I’m off!” said Lily. “I’ve had enough of this!”