“But I can’t understand, Maria; you told him about those gold dishes yourself.”

“Never, never!  I never saw such a lot of crazy folks as you are.”

“But you say he hits you sometimes.”

“Ah!” said Maria, tossing her head scornfully, “I ain’t afraid of him.  He takes his horsewhip to me now and then, but I can always manage.  I say, ‘If you touch me with that, then I’ll never tell you.’  Just pretending, you know, and he drops it as though it was red hot.  Say, Mrs. McTeague, have you got any tea?  Let’s make a cup of tea over the stove.”

“No, no,” cried Trina, with niggardly apprehension; “no, I haven’t got a bit of tea.”  Trina’s stinginess had increased to such an extent that it had gone beyond the mere hoarding of money.  She grudged even the food that she and McTeague ate, and even brought away half loaves of bread, lumps of sugar, and fruit from the car conductors’ coffee-joint.  She hid these pilferings away on the shelf by the window, and often managed to make a very creditable lunch from them, enjoying the meal with the greater relish because it cost her nothing.

“No, Maria, I haven’t got a bit of tea,” she said, shaking her head decisively.  “Hark, ain’t that Mac?” she added, her chin in the air.  “That’s his step, sure.”

“Well, I’m going to skip,” said Maria.  She left hurriedly, passing the dentist in the hall just outside the door.  “Well?” said Trina interrogatively as her husband entered.  McTeague did not answer.  He hung his hat on the hook behind the door and dropped heavily into a chair.

“Well,” asked Trina, anxiously, “how did you make out, Mac?”

Still the dentist pretended not to hear, scowling fiercely at his muddy boots.

“Tell me, Mac, I want to know.  Did you get a place?  Did you get caught in the rain?”

“Did I?  Did I?” cried the dentist, sharply, an alacrity in his manner and voice that Trina had never observed before.

“Look at me.  Look at me,” he went on, speaking with an unwonted rapidity, his wits sharp, his ideas succeeding each other quickly.  “Look at me, drenched through, shivering cold.  I’ve walked the city over.  Caught in the rain!  Yes, I guess I did get caught in the rain, and it ain’t your fault I didn’t catch my death-a-cold; wouldn’t even let me have a nickel for car fare.”

“But, Mac,” protested Trina, “I didn’t know it was going to rain.”

The dentist put back his head and laughed scornfully.  His face was very red, and his small eyes twinkled.  “Hoh! no, you didn’t know it was going to rain.  Didn’t I tell you it was?” he exclaimed, suddenly angry again.  “Oh, you’re a Daisy, you are.  Think I’m going to put up with your foolishness all the time?  Who’s the boss, you or I?”

“Why, Mac, I never saw you this way before.  You talk like a different man.”

“Well, I am a different man,” retorted the dentist, savagely.  “You can’t make small of me always.”