“What did you tell him?”
“What did I tell him?” said Tony bitterly. “I told him that I was a tramp, and that when I got older I should be a tramp still.”
“Well,” said Rudolph sharply, “what then?”
“The boy told me I ought to get some regular work to do, and grow into a respectable member of society.
He said that his father would help me, he thought, and——” “So you want to leave me, do you?” demanded Rudolph fiercely. “Is that what you’re coming to, my chicken?”
“It isn’t that so much as the life you make me lead. I want to leave that, Rudolph.”
“Well, you can’t do it,” said the man shortly.
Why not?”
“I say so, and that’s enough.”
Tony was silent for a moment. He was not greatly disappointed, for he expected a refusal. He changed the subject.