Now it would be a hundred dollars, now sixty; now she would content herself with only twenty; and once, after a fortnight's abstinence, she permitted herself a positive debauch of five hundred.

Little by little she drew her capital from Uncle Oelbermann, and little by little her original interest of twenty-five dollars a month dwindled.
One day she presented herself again in the office of the whole-sale toy store.
"Will you let me have a check for two hundred dollars, Uncle Oelbermann ?" she said.
The great man laid down his fountain pen and leaned back in his swivel chair with great deliberation.
"I don't understand, Mrs.McTeague," he said.

"Every week you come here and draw out a little of your money.

I've told you that it is not at all regular or business-like for me to let you have it this way.

And more than this, it's a great inconvenience to me to give you these checks at unstated times.