Lily gave a little laugh as she went out, followed by Trampy. She did not
wish, in that lobby, before the people passing, to look like a woman
insulted by her husband. She laughed bravely, as she used to, on the
stage, with Ma, in the days of the great smackings. To see her laugh, one
would have thought that Trampy was telling her a story; and he repeated:

"I'll kill him like a dog, like a dog!"

"Pooh!" said Lily, who knew Trampy. "You talk too much to act."

"We shall see. Where's your Jimmy hiding?"

"You'd be nicely caught, if you met him," said Lily, who had just noticed
Jimmy leaving the music-hall to go to the Kolossal: "there he is, behind
you."...

"What's that? Don't you try to get at me!" said Trampy.

"I tell you, he's behind you, damn it! Turn round and you'll see ... if
you have eyes to see with."

Trampy turned round, half-reluctantly: he didn't like those jokes, but he
didn't wish to seem afraid.

"Where? Where do you see Jimmy?" he grumbled.

"There, in front of you," insisted Lily, pointing with her finger and
pushing him by the shoulder. "Off you go!"

There was no drawing back. He marched straight up to Jimmy, who did not
even recognize him and who stopped politely. But Trampy had time for
reflection, no doubt: a clearer perception of professional brotherhood.
Better, after all, to remain friends ... among artistes. And, when he
stood before him:

"H'm, h'm. Have you got a light about you, Jimmy? Give us a match," said
Trampy, taking a cigar from his pocket.

CHAPTER V

It stifled Lily, for the moment. She would rather have received twenty
"contracts" with the steel buckle than see that cowardice in her husband.
She had her Pa's blood in her, damn it!

"What!" she thought. "He believes me to misconduct myself with Jimmy, and
he is too much of a coward to object!"

But there was nothing to be done. Trampy was as incapable of anger as of
love. All those years of a low life had degraded him to that point. And
Trampy had even lost the right to bear Jimmy a grudge, made as though he
had forgotten everything, said that, after all, it was much better to be
friends. And all this under Lily's critical eye!

Jimmy! To be obliged to look pleasant at Jimmy! It gave him a lump in his
throat. Fortunately, he had the others, the crowd of assiduous pros who
thronged round his wife. Against those he gave free scope to his jealousy,
and showed himself as strict with the rest as he had been