pounced. Still squatting, she lighted the cigarette in the candle flame and sat solemnly puffing it.
“The first for a week,” she said. “Pull out the wardrobe, Scatch; there may be another relic of my prosperous days.”
But little Scatchett was not interested in Austrian cigarettes with a government monopoly and gilt tips. She was looking at the ten-kronen piece.
“Where is the other?” she asked in a whisper.
“In my powder-box.”
Little Scatchett lifted the china lid and dropped the tiny gold-piece.
“Every little bit,” she said flippantly, but still in a whisper, “added to what she's got, makes just a little bit more.”
“Have you thought of a place to leave it for her? If Rosa finds it, it's good-bye. Heaven knows it was hard enough to get together, without losing it now. I'll have to jump overboard and swim ashore at New York—I haven't even a dollar for tips.”
“New York!” said little Scatchett with her eyes glowing. “If Henry meets me I know he will—”
“Tut!” The Big Soprano got up cumbrously and stood looking down. “You and your Henry! Scatchy, child, has it occurred to your maudlin young mind that money isn't the only thing Harmony is going to need? She's going to be alone—and this is a bad town to be alone in. And she is not like us. You have your Henry. I'm a beefy person who has a stomach, and I'm thankful for it. But she is different—she's got the thing that you are as well without, the thing that my lack of is sending me back to fight in a church choir instead of grand opera.”
Little Scatchett was rather puzzled.
“Temperament?” she asked. It had always been accepted in the little colony that Harmony was a real musician, a star in their lesser firmament.
The Big Soprano sniffed.
“If you like,” she said. “Soul is a better word. Only the rich ought to have souls, Scatchy, dear.”
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