"I can't go back on what Mr. Harling has said. This is his
house."
"Then I'll just leave, Mrs. Harling. Lena's been wanting me to get a place
closer to her for a long while. Mary Svoboda's going away from the
Cutters' to work at the hotel, and I can have her place."
Mrs. Harling rose from her chair. "Antonia, if you go to the Cutters to
work, you cannot come back to this house again. You know what that man is.
It will be the ruin of you."
Tony snatched up the tea-kettle and began to pour boiling water over the
glasses, laughing excitedly. "Oh, I can take care of myself! I'm a lot
stronger than Cutter is. They pay four dollars there, and there's no
children. The work's nothing; I can have every evening, and be out a lot
in the afternoons."
"I thought you liked children. Tony, what's come over you?"
"I don't know, something has." Antonia tossed her head and set her jaw. "A
girl like me has got to take her good times when she can. Maybe there
won't be any tent next year. I guess I want to have my fling, like the
other girls."
Mrs. Harling gave a short, harsh laugh. "If you go to work for the
Cutters, you're likely to have a fling that you won't get up from in a
hurry."
Frances said, when she told grandmother and me about this scene, that
every pan and plate and cup on the shelves trembled when her mother walked
out of the kitchen.
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