Frank Norris

“ The room was dark and empty. With cold, trembling fingers she lighted the lamp, and, turning about, looked at her trunk. The lock was burst.
"No, no, no," cried Trina, "it's not true; it's not true." She dropped on her knees before the trunk, and tossed back the lid, and plunged her hands down into the corner underneath her wedding dress, where she always kept the savings. The brass match-safe and the chamois-skin bag were there. They were empty.
Trina flung herself full length upon the floor, burying her face in her arms, rolling her head from side to side. Her voice rose to a wail. ”

“ Was there time to make herself look otherwise, and who was there to be pleased when she was all prinked out? Surely not a great brute of a husband who bit you like a dog, and kicked and pounded you as though you were made of iron. ”

“ The fisherman across the street would buy 'em of you."
"Shut up!" exclaimed the dentist, and Trina obediently subsided.
"Look here," continued her husband, fumbling in his trousers pocket and bringing out a dollar, "I'm sick and tired of coffee and bacon and mashed potatoes. Go over to the market and get some kind of meat for breakfast. Get a steak, or chops, or something.
"Why, Mac, that's a whole dollar, and he only gave you five for your sign. We can't afford it. Sure, Mac. Let me put that money away against a rainy day. You're just as well off without meat for breakfast." ”

“ By the time of his arrival little Miss Baker had divined intuitively the entire trouble. She heard the doctor's swinging tramp in the entry below, and heard the German woman saying:
"Righd oop der stairs, at der back of der halle. Der room mit der door oppen."
Miss Baker met the doctor at the landing, she told him in a whisper of the trouble.
"Her husband's deserted her, I'm afraid, doctor, and took all of her money--a good deal of it. It's about killed the poor child. She was out of her head a good deal of the night, and now she's got a raging fever." ”

“ It'll be money in my pocket."
"But it won't be any in mine," vociferated the dentist, angrily. "I'll have to live in that dirty rat hole just so's you can save money. I ain't any the better off for it."
"Find work to do, and then we'll talk," declared Trina. "I'M going to save up some money against a rainy day; and if I can save more by living here I'm going to do it, even if it is the house Maria was killed in. I don't care."
"All right," said McTeague, and did not make any further protest. His wife looked at him surprised. ”