Page 68 - sons-and-lovers

to her shoes. Then she sat down and thought: ‘WAS there a
sixpence? I hadn’t spent it, had I? And I hadn’t left it any-
where else?’
She was much put about. She hunted round everywhere
for it. And, as she sought, the conviction came into her heart
that her husband had taken it. What she had in her purse
was all the money she possessed. But that he should sneak it
from her thus was unbearable. He had done so twice before.
The first time she had not accused him, and at the week-end
he had put the shilling again into her purse. So that was how
she had known he had taken it. The second time he had not
paid back.
This time she felt it was too much. When he had had his
dinner— he came home early that day—she said to him
coldly:
‘Did you take sixpence out of my purse last night?’
‘Me!’ he said, looking up in an offended way. ‘No, I did-
na! I niver clapped eyes on your purse.’
But she could detect the lie.
‘Why, you know you did,’ she said quietly.
‘I tell you I didna,’ he shouted. ‘Yer at me again, are yer?
I’ve had about enough on’t.’
‘So you filch sixpence out of my purse while I’m taking
the clothes in.’
‘I’ll may yer pay for this,’ he said, pushing back his chair
in desperation. He bustled and got washed, then went de-
terminedly upstairs. Presently he came down dressed, and
with a big bundle in a blue-checked, enormous handker-
chief.