And it's always been kept in repair. It was good enough
for your father, and it's good enough for me. I don't see myself
flitting. But some folks have gotten so grand. As for health, old Reuben
next door is ninety-one. How many people over ninety are there in those
gimcrack houses up by the Park, I should like to know?"
Denry could argue with any one save his mother. Always, when he was
about to reduce her to impotence, she fell on him thus and rolled him in
the dust. Still, he began again.
"Do we pay four-and-sixpence a week for this cottage, or don't we?" he
demanded.
"And always have done," said Mrs Machin. "I should like to see the
landlord put it up," she added, formidably, as if to say: "I'd landlord
him, if he tried to put _my_ rent up!"
"Well," said Denry, "here we are living in a four-and-six-a-week
cottage, and do you know how much I'm making? I'm making two thousand
pounds a year. That's what I'm making."
A second wilful deception of his mother! As Managing Director of the
Five Towns Universal Thrift Club, as proprietor of the majority of its
shares, as its absolute autocrat, he was making very nearly four
thousand a year.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227