“To Cleveland,” she replied.
“Well, how did you expect to get along?”
“I thought I’d take papa, if he’d come with me—he’s alone now—and get something to do, maybe.”
“Well, what can you do, Jennie, different from what you ever have done? You wouldn’t expect to be a lady’s maid again, would you? Or clerk in a store?”
“I thought I might get some place as a housekeeper,” she suggested. She had been counting up her possibilities, and this was the most promising idea that had occurred to her.
“No, no,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “There’s nothing to that. There’s nothing in this whole move of yours except a notion. Why, you won’t be any better off morally than you are right now. You can’t undo the past. It doesn’t make any difference, anyhow. I can’t marry you now. I might in the future, but I can’t tell anything about that, and I don’t want to promise anything. You’re not going to leave me though with my consent, and if you were going I wouldn’t have you dropping back into any such thing as you’re contemplating. I’ll make some provision for you. You don’t really want to leave me, do you, Jennie?”
Against Lester’s strong personality and vigorous protest Jennie’s own conclusions and decisions went to pieces. Just the pressure of his hand was enough to upset her. Now she began to cry.
“Don’t cry, Jennie,” he said. “This thing may work out better than you think. Let it rest for a while. Take off your things. You’re not going to leave me any more, are you?”
“No-o-o!” she sobbed.
He took her in his lap. “Let things rest as they are,” he went on. “It’s a curious world. Things can’t be adjusted in a minute. They may work out. I’m putting up with some things myself that I ordinarily wouldn’t stand for.”