that hall? 'Seize London and the Government'--you said it was that,
didn't you?--well, they're much more likely to get brain fever and wake
up in the hospital. That's what I shall tell your father if he asks me.
And, Lois, how can you and I talk about anything serious when I haven't
a shilling to call my own and your father won't let you out of his sight
lest he should want something. It will all be different soon--bad things
always are. I shall make a fortune myself some day--I'm certain of it as
though I had the money already in the bank. People who make fortunes
always know that they are going to do so. I shall make a lot of money
and then come back for you--just my little Lois sewing at the window,
the same old dirty court, the same ragged fellows talking about sacking
London, the same faces everywhere--but Lois unchanged and waiting for
me--now isn't it that, dear, won't you be unchanged when I come back for
you?"

They stood for an instant in the shadow of a shuttered shop and, leaping
up at his question, she lifted warm red lips to his own--and the girl of
seventeen and the boy of mature twenty kissed as ardently as lovers
newly sworn to eternal devotion.

"I do love you, Alb," she cried, "I shall never love any other
man--straight, my dear, though there ain't much use in a-telling you.
Oh, Alb, if you meant it, you wouldn't leave me in this awful place;
you'd take me away, darling, where I could see the fields and the
gardens. I'd come, Alb, as true as death--I'd go this night if you arst
me, straight away never to come back--if it were to sleep on the hard
road and beg my bread from house to house--I'd go with you, Alb, as
heaven hears me, I'd be an honest wife to you and you should never
regret the day. What's to keep us, Alb, dear? Oh, we're fine rich, ain't
we, both of us, you with your fifteen shillings from the yard and me
with nine and six from the fronts. Gawd's truth, Rothschild ain't
nothink to you and me, Alb, when we've the mind to play the great lidy
and gentleman. Do you know that I lay abed some nights and try to think
as it's a kerridge and pair and you a-sittin' beside of me and nothink
round us but the green fields and the blue sky, and nothink never more
to do but jess ride on with your hand in mine and the sun to shine upon
us. Lord, what a thing it is to wake up then, Alb, and 'ear the caller
cryin' five and see my father like a white ghost at the door. And that's
wot's got to go on to the