cite him: she needed
much more than a few odd favours. And she was afraid to do anything to
force him to grant whatever he could. In any case, what could he give
her? She was too observant to be deceived as to his powerlessness. She
saw him as a cypher; but as one who might one day--perhaps quite
soon--own the whole business. Who else was there to make him do anything
with it? There was nobody. Sally knew her own strength. What she could
not guess was the best means of using it to her own advantage.

She arrived home to find her mother in bed, with her short grey hair
scantily bedecking the pillow. At Sally's entrance, Mrs. Minto opened
weary eyes, and looked at her with a sort of hatred. Sally knew the
expression: it was full of suspicion and dread and solicitude, the
result of Mrs. Minto's lonely evening of speculation.

"Hullo, ma!" she cried, recklessly. "Here I am. And I haven't been
working. And there's nothing to fuss about. And that's all about that."

"Where you been?" sternly demanded Mrs. Minto.

"Well," began Sally, "if you _must_ know, Madam's worse. She's ill.
Think she's going to die. And I been talking to Mr. Bertram, and giving
him good advice. I'm a mother to that man. What he'd do without me I
can't think."

"Oo, Mr. Bertram!" It was clearly a warning cry. "Mr. Bertram! Oo,
Sally!"

"Soppy, ma. We call him 'Gaga.' He's weak, you know. Cries over his
work, like a kid. Wants somebody to give him a bit of backbone."

"Confidence," suggested Mrs. Minto, intrigued by the picture. She said
no more, but rolled over and stared at the dim wall until sleep crept
upon her and annulled her reflections.

Sally was struck by the word. Confidence! That was what Gaga needed!
Half the time he was afraid of his own shadow. Quickly her brain
refashioned the meal she had had with Gaga. Poor lamb, he hadn't got any
confidence! Madam had kept him down. He wanted rousing. Once get his
blood up, and he might do something really.... For the first time Sally
was genuinely interested in Gaga. She had never honestly thought of
helping him for his own sake. All she had thought of was her own future.
And now her mother had put Gaga in a new light. Sally almost thought
well of him. He might be rather bigger than she had supposed. What if he
were?

Yes, but what did Gaga want of Sally? You don't kiss a girl because she
is anything but a girl. It was a profundity. Gaga had kissed Sally
because....

Sally turned away to h