"2ndsm10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sinclair Upton)

that would make you sick. It was a pain you couldn't tell about . . .
it was a couple of days before I knew where I was. And the first thing
when I came to my senses . . . in the hospital, it was . . . there was
a lawyer chap with a paper waiting for me.

MRS. AUSTIN. [In agitation.] A lawyer?

JIM. Yes, ma'am. Company representative, you know. And I was to sign
the paper . . . it was a receipt for the hospital expenses . . . the
operation and all that . . . you see they had to take out what was
left of my eye. And of course I couldn't see . . . I had to sign where
he told me to. And when I got well, I found they had trapped me into
signing a release.

MRS. AUSTIN. A release?

JIM. I had accepted the hospital expenses as a release for all the
company owed me. And I couldn't get any damages . . . and my eye was
gone, and all the weeks without any wages.

MRS. AUSTIN. My God!

JIM. And they turned me out so weak I could hardly walk; and . . .

MRS. AUSTIN. [Greatly excited.] Who was this man?

JIM. Which?

MRS. AUSTIN. This lawyer?

JIM. I never heard his name. He was a young fellow . . . handsome . .
. smooth- faced . . .

MRS. AUSTIN. [Whispering.] Oh!

JIM. Ah, they don't mind it . . . they're smooth. They do that all the
time. It's what they get their pay for.

MRS. AUSTIN. [Covering her face with her hands.] Oh, stop!

JIM. What's the matter?

MRS. AUSTIN. [Looking up with white face.] Nothing. Go on.

JIM. It was two months before I could work at all. And the rent came
due, and they turned us out . . . it was winter-time, and my wife
caught a cold, and it turned to pneumonia, and she died. That's all of
that.

MRS. AUSTIN. Go on.