'Harold and I shall take care of her now.

He was up this morning at four o'clock, and has gone to Mr.Allen's, four miles away, to paint a room for him like mine.' She said this a little defiantly, for she felt hot and resentful that Tom Tracy should be sitting there at his ease, while Harold was literally working for his daily bread, and also took a kind of bitter pride in letting Tom know that she was not ashamed of Harold's work.
'Yes,' Tom drawled, 'that new room must have cost Hal his bottom dollar.
We all wondered how he could afford it.

I hope you like it.' She was too angry to tell him whether she liked it or not, for she knew the speech was a mean one and prompted by a mean spirit, and she kept on rubbing a towel until there was danger of its being rubbed into shreds.
Then suddenly remembering that Tom had not told her of Maude, she repeated her question.

'How is Maude?
She was coming to see me this morning I hope I shall be done before she gets here.' 'Don't hurry yourself for Maude,' Tom replied.

'She will not be here to-day.