He had
the German idea of women. They had a distinct place in the world,
but that place was not a high one. Their function was to bring
children into the world. They were breeding animals, and as such
to be carefully watched and not particularly trusted. They had no
place in the affairs of men, outside the home.
Not that he put it that way. In his way he probably loved the girl.
But never once did he think of her as an intelligent and reasoning
creature. He took her salary, gave her a small allowance for
car-fare, and banked the rest of it in his own name. It would all
be hers some day, so what difference did it make?
But the direst want would not have made him touch a penny of it.
He disliked animals. But in a curious shame-faced fashion he liked
flowers. Such portions of his garden as were useless for vegetables
he had planted out in flowers. But he never cut them and brought
them into the house, and he watched jealously that no one else
should do so. He kept poisoned meat around for such dogs in the
neighborhood as wandered in, and Anna had found him once callously
watching the death agonies of one of them.
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