idn't
seem to be at all the same to me, and Amelia seemed sad, too.

I was in the hairdressing then, and serving my time, so it was only
on Sundays or an evening that I could get out. But at last I said to
myself, 'This can't go on; us three that used to be so jolly, we're
as flat as half a pint of four ale; and I'll know the reason why,'
says I, 'before I'm twenty-four hours older.' So I went to
Teesdale's with that clear fixed in my head.

Jenny was not in the house, but Amelia was. The old folks had gone
to a Magic Lantern in the schoolroom, and Amelia was alone in the
house.

'I'll have it out with her,' thinks I; so as soon as we had passed
the time of day and asked after each other's relations, I says,
'Look here, Amelia, what is it that's making mischief between you
and me and Jenny, as used to be so jolly along of each other?'

She went red, and she went white and red again.

'Don't 'e ask me, Tom--don't 'e now, there's a good fellow.'

And, of course, I asked her all the more.

Then says she, 'Jenny'll never forgive me if I tell you.'

'Jenny shan't never know,' says I; and I swore it, too.

Then says Amelia, 'I can't abear to tell you, Tom, for I know it
will break your 'eart. But Jenny, she don't care for you no more;
it's Joe Wheeler as she fancies now, and she's out with him this
very minute, as here we stand.

'I'll wring her neck for her,' says I. Then when I had taken time to
think a bit, 'I can't believe this, Amelia,' says I, 'not even from
you. I must ask Jenny.'

'But that's just what you've swore not to do,' says she. 'She'll
never forgive me if you do, Tom; and what need of asking when for
the trouble of walking the length of the road you can see them
together? But if I tell you where to find them, you swear you won't
speak or make a fuss, because she'd know I'd told you?'

'I swear I won't,' says I.

'Well, then,' says Amelia, 'I don't seem to be acting fair to her;
but, take it the other way, I can't abear to stand by and see you
deceived, Tom. If you go by the churchyard an hour from now, you'll
see them in the porch; but don't you say a word to them, and never
say I told you. Now, be off, Tom,' says she.

It was early summer by this time, and the evenings long. I don't
think any man need envy me what I felt as I walked about the lanes
waiting till it was time to walk up to the church and find out for
certain that I'd been made a fool of.

It was dusk when I opened the church