“One hundred dollars.”
He almost dropped it. A hundred dollars! Then he remembered Anna's story.
“Have you any gold-filled ones that look like this?”
“We do not handle gold-filled cases.”
He put it down, and turned to go. Then he stopped.
“Don't sell on the installment plan, either, I suppose?” The sneer in his voice was clearer than his anxiety. In his mind, he already knew the answer.
“Sorry. No.”
He went out. So he had been right. That young skunk had paid a hundred dollars for a watch for Anna. To Rudolph it meant but one thing.
That had been early in January. For some days he kept his own counsel, thinking, planning, watching. He was jealous of Graham, but with a calculating jealousy that set him wondering how to turn his knowledge to his own advantage. And Anna's lack of liberty comforted him somewhat. He couldn't meet her outside the mill, at least not without his knowing it.
He established a system of espionage over her that drove her almost to madness.