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But these delicious tete-a-tetes with Trina were offset by a certain coolness that Marcus Schouler began to affect towards the dentist. At first McTeague was unaware of it; but by this time even his slow wits began to perceive that his best friend his "pal" was not the same to him as formerly. They continued to meet at lunch nearly every day but Friday at the car conductors' coffee-joint.
Furlong stopped short in his sentence. "Dear me!" he said as his eyes caught the item of news. "How very dreadful!" "What is it?" said the rector. "Dr. McTeague," answered his father. "He has been stricken with paralysis!" "How shocking!" said the rector, aghast. "But when? I saw him only this morning."
Now that McTeague had left her, there was one less mouth to feed; and with this saving, together with the little she could earn as scrub-woman, Trina could almost manage to make good the amount she lost by being obliged to cease work upon the Noah's ark animals. Little by little her sorrow over the loss of her precious savings overcame the grief of McTeague's desertion of her.
Near the station Trina and McTeague sat on the roadbed of the tracks, at the edge of the mud bank, making the most out of the landscape, enjoying the open air, the salt marshes, and the sight of the distant water. From time to time McTeague played his six mournful airs upon his concertina.
At Marcus's shout McTeague looked up and around him. For the instant he saw no one. The white glare of alkali was still unbroken. Then his swiftly rolling eyes lighted upon a head and shoulder that protruded above the low crest of the break directly in front of him. A man was there, lying at full length upon the ground, covering him with a revolver.
McTeague went out with him, and the two friends proceeded up to the avenue to the house where the dog was to be found.
It was harrowing he sweated under it to be forced to torture her, of all women in the world; could anything be worse than that? "Hurt?" he inquired, anxiously. She answered by frowning, with a sharp intake of breath, putting her fingers over her closed lips and nodding her head. McTeague sprayed the tooth with glycerite of tannin, but without effect.
But half way down the stairs he paused long enough to call back: "You don't want to trade anything for a diploma, do you?" McTeague and his wife exchanged looks. "How did he know?" exclaimed Trina, sharply. They had invented and spread the fiction that McTeague was merely retiring from business, without assigning any reason. But evidently every one knew the real cause.
As he set down his glass with a bang he suddenly exclaimed: "What's the matter with you these days, Mac? You got a bean about somethun, hey? Spit ut out." "No, no," replied McTeague, looking about on the floor, rolling his eyes; "nothing, no, no." "Ah, rats!" returned the other. McTeague kept silence. The two billiard players departed. The huge music-box struck into a fresh tune.
Miss Baker pointed to the trunk, whispering: "See, there's where she kept her savings. See, he broke the lock." "Well, Mrs. McTeague," said the doctor, sitting down by the bed, and taking Trina's wrist, "a little fever, eh?" Trina opened her eyes and looked at him, and then at Miss Baker. She did not seem in the least surprised at the unfamiliar faces.
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