“Then I give up!” said Ma, in a voice of exasperation. “Then I give up! Why should I take all this trouble bringing up your daughter? A little spendthrift who will bring us all to the workhouse! And a good thing when she does!”
But Pa wanted peace in his own house. That was enough of it! Peace was what he wanted, damn it, and not a monkey-and-parrot life!
And, jumping up from his chair, he opened the door and shouted up the staircase:
“Come down, my Lily! Your Ma says you may! The cakes are on the table.”
CHAPTER IV
Pa would have covered his Lily with diamonds, if he had the money ... and if Ma had allowed it! But, on this special point, she ventured to oppose him. She had been Lily’s age herself, had Ma, and she enlarged upon the necessity of keeping a tight rein on Lily.
Ma enumerated the fugitives: Ave Maria, and this one, and that one, and ever so many others who had bolted; and troupes ruined by the flight,—or the marriage,—of the star....
“Lily has changed a good deal lately, dear, are you sure she hasn’t a man in her mind?”