“I knew you’d get it,” she cried. “You can get anything you ever go for, Harry Willard, if you’d just listen to me!”

Since there was no other audience available, Papa was obliged to do his talking to his small family. He paced up and down the room, with his thumbs in his vest, and said, thank God, he didn’t have to slave for a flathead like Carson any more, a man who wouldn’t trust an old employee, criticizing expense accounts, pinching pennies like no first-class company ever did. He was glad he could lift his head up again on his trips, hold his own with other men representing high-class firms such as the London Furniture Company could never be with a dumbbell like Bert Carson at the head, a spying, suspicious old cheapskate who didn’t appreciate what a hell of a lot of guts it took to build up a business on the road. He should have listened to Hartwell two years ago and quit then instead of waiting for this kick in the pants. But you couldn’t keep Harry Willard down, no, sir! He was signed up now with the Emperor Mausoleum Company, traveling out of Chicago, working for one of the biggest men in the business, Colgate Custer.

“You can tell that to your Aunt Lois next time she tries to pump you,” Papa instructed Lena. “Just say your father’s making twice the money and working for Colgate Custer. I’ll drop in on your grandma next week and tell her. She’s the only friend I’ve got in the whole damn family.”

He went off next day in high spirits, without saying when he would be back. Mr. Purdy came in to see him and was surprised to find him gone.

“Did he leave anything with you?” he asked Lena.

Lena said no, and Mr. Purdy, after a thoughtful look around the room, went out, stroking his chin.

“I suppose Papa never paid this bill, either,” said Lena, scowling. “I get sick and tired of it!”

Florrie and Marcia stared in horror at this evidence of rising disloyalty to Papa.

“Aunt Lois says we owe everybody in town,” Lena stated.

“Mary Evelyn’s mother said Papa’s never paid a bill in his life, and the only reason the Purdys let us stay here, never paying, is that Bonnie Purdy is stuck on Papa. Aunt Lois said Papa borrowed fifty dollars from Mr. Sweeney for the first month we were here and never paid anything since.”

Florrie began to cry. Every word Lena said hurt Marcia. Even if it was true, you couldn’t come right out and say such things, not, oh never, about Papa. Lena’s pretty, rosy face was drawn into an angry frown, her lips pulled tightly together. She looked almost grown-up and very much like Aunt Lois, with her hair frizzed and pulled back into a bun.

“I don’t believe what Mary Evelyn’s mother says,” Marcia said. “She’s just a store clerk.”

This high-handed attack again impressed and surprised Lena so that she looked at Marcia with grudging respect. Carried away with her success Marcia made so bold as to ask Bonnie outright, before Lena, if Papa owed a lot of money.