For the more obstinate she was, the more she made me eager to win my point, to bring her and Will back to me. She understood this, and a flash of her old will and malice came into her thin face. She got up to stir the clothes on the fire, and when the water began to run over I stripped off my coat and put my hand to the job. Then I stepped over to the sink.
"Do you remember how I used to wash while you wiped, when we wanted to get out buggy-riding, May?"
"Yes, and you were an awful shiftless worker, Senator," May retorted, fetching a dish-towel from the rack and beginning to wash, while I wiped. "And you had the same smooth way with you, though in those days you hadn't ten cents to your name. And now, how much is it?"
"Oh, say a quarter!"
"Then it must have cost you a sight of money to become Senator."
"It did some, but I kept back a little."
When we had finished the dishes we began on the clothes. A child's dress caught on the wringer and tore. It was marked in a fine embroidery with the initials, J.S. II., for Jaffrey Slocum Harrington—as we had thought to call the little chap. May saw me look at the initials.
"Sarah sent it to me along with a lot of baby things when my Jack came. Perhaps she might like to have them back now."
"She and the girls come home next week. Won't you come and see her? She'd care more for that than for anything."