Meantime, her mother had toiled up--her jewels glittering curiously in the dusk--and now poured herself out to the fresh auditor in a breathless wail; recapitulated her long years of devotion and the abstracted contents of the house. But Lazarus soon wearied of the inventory of her virtues and furniture. "What's the use of crying over spilt milk?" he said. "You must get a new jug." "A new jug! And what about the basin and the coffee-pot and the saucepans and the plates! And my new blue dish with the willow-pattern. Oh, my God!" "Don't be so stupid." "She's a little dazed, Lazarus, dear. Have patience with her. Lazarus says it's no use crying and letting the neighbours hear you: we must make the best of a bad job, and cover it up." "You'll soon cover me up. I won't need my clothes then--only a clean shroud. After twenty years--he wipes his mouth and he goes away! Tear the rent in your garments, children mine, your mother is dead." "How can any one have patience with her?" cried Lazarus. "One would think it was such a treat for her to live with father. Judging by the rows you've had, mother, you ought to be thankful to be rid of him." "I _am_ thankful," she retorted hysterically. "Who said I wasn't? A grumbling, grunting pig, who grudged me my horsehair couch because he couldn't sit on it. Well, let him squat on it now with his lady. I don't care. All my enemies will pity me, will they? If they only knew how glad I was!" and she broke into more sobs. "Come, mother; come downstairs, Lazarus: don't let us stay up in the dark." "Not me," said Lazarus. "I'm not going down to hear this all over again. Besides, where am I to sit or to sleep? I must go to an hotel." He struck a match to relight his cigar and it flared weirdly upon the tear-smudged female faces. "Got any money, Salvina," he said more gently. "Only five shillings." "Well, I daresay I can manage on that. Good-night, mother, don't take on so, it'll be all the same a hundred years hence." He opened the door; then paused with his hand on the knob, and said awkwardly: "I suppose you'll manage to find something to sleep on just for to-night." "Oh, yes," said Salvina reassuringly; "we'll manage. Don't worry, dear." "I'll be in the first thing in the morning. We'll have a council of war. Good-night. It _is_ a beastly mean trick," and he went out meditatively.