“I’m telling you things as they are; and I won’t come back to you, because I can make more elsewhere! Every one for himself!”
“But you don’t make a penny!” said Ma, gradually getting angry. “You heard Trampy, just now. He called you an idler. Your Pa, at least, used to make you work. You’re trying to bluff us with those stories of your successes. I dare say you’ll be glad, one day, of a crust of bread with us.”
“Ma!”
“Your contracts,” said Ma, “you’re always talking of your contracts. I should like to see them and your programs too.”
“Certainly,” said Lily. “I’ll show them to you: Munich, Berlin, Hamburg. I’ve had successes everywhere, engagements everywhere! I make more by myself than all Pa’s troupe put together!”
“Yes, but how do you get your engagements?” said Ma, pale with anger, seeing that Lily was escaping them and, this time, for good. “Tell me how you get them?”
“Why, through my talent, I suppose.”
“Your talent! Pooh! You’ve none left! You get them through your friends: through your Jimmy, your gentlemen friends....”
“That’s a lie!”
“You get them ... by looking pretty and getting round the men ... you ... you ... you....”