"My fault!" Ada screamed. "I didn't take all his money. It was little enough. I only took it when there was nothing in the house to eat."
"It's your fault. It's your fault," Ben repeated as though reciting a lesson to himself. He raised bleary eyes to her stormy ones. "You didn't tell him and he thought of it as stealing."
"He'll come back, Mother," said Ellie soothingly.
"He better not come back," said Ada, fiercely. "Running away from home! All this added disgrace! I had enough to bear before."
Howard never came back and Ada remembered how, in her stubborn bitterness, she would not allow the mention of his name.
Now she studied the knees under the sheet. Yes, the swollen joints were prominent. Scrubbing floors had done that to the knees that were once round and dimpled. She thought it was the only work for her after Ben died. She was not used to anything but housework.
Scrubbing floors was not bad. Without fear in the back of her mind she could laugh and joke with the other scrub women when they met to eat a midnight lunch in the tall building. She could sleep in her quiet room without fear of being rudely awakened to appease a befuddled man and guard against his attacks.
And she was independent!
When Ellie left her job as waitress to marry Ted Hayes they went into a small house, just around the corner from the rooming house where Ada lived.
"Come live with us, mother," said Ellie. "Ted wants you to."