a transaction rather than a Withdrawn snivel
how different to hit the Antitois’ doorstep with liquid assets, to request a transaction rather than bare charity, more almost a social call than a contemptible Withdrawn snivel for compassion
Context
The addict-crime calculus with its shame worked in: eyeing two women's purses, Poor Tony frames the theft as a dignity-preserving move — arriving at the dealer's with cash to make a transaction instead of begging pharmacological credit, "a contemptible Withdrawn snivel for compassion." The disease routes him toward robbery not just for the money but to spare himself the humiliation of the Withdrawn beggar, so that even the crime is organized around the shame the drug installs.