ecause of the thousand marks, or proud to
show off her dress. Perhaps also she had prepared things to say. But all
that was forgotten, gone, blown away, like a straw in the storm, for
nothing came from her but this, in an anxious voice:

"Tell me, Jimmy, is it true that you love me?"

"Why," said Jimmy, perceiving Lily's agitation, without guessing the
reason: oh, but for Lily to do a thing like that! How she would regret it
later; it was terrible this time really. He saw all that at a glance; a
great pity invaded him; and yet he was a man of flesh and blood and felt
stirred to the marrow. "Why," he began, in a voice which he strove to make
friendly, no more, "why, Lily, who told you that? Why really ... I...."

"Jimmy," she cried, fixing her eyes, like two flaming swords upon him,
"answer me! Do you love me or not?"

Jimmy, turning as pale as a corpse, looked at her without flinching and
shook his head in sign of no.

"Oh, you mean cur!" roared Lily.

And she struck him on the face with her clenched fist.

* * * * *

Then she went out without a word, ran down the stairs, out into the blaze
of Leicester Square, made for the dark streets and plunged into the
night....

INTERMEZZO

I

The artistes' special left Euston at noon that Sunday. The Three Graces
were the first to arrive; then the waiting-rooms, until lately deserted,
began to fill with silent groups of five or six persons at a time, who
had, no doubt, arranged the night before, at the theater, to travel
together and avail themselves of the reduction allowed to members of the
M. H. A. R. A.: a reduction of at least a third, provided there were five
in the party. They now swarmed into the station from every side: pale
faces, under huge feathers; wrists hooped round with bangles; breasts
bristling with gollywogs and lucky charms. There were little girls with
bows over their ears, dressed in plush and velvet and following their Pas
and Mas. There were troupes of carpet acrobats, with low foreheads, broad
shoulders and bow legs; and profs, bosses and managers, recognizable by
the richness of their watch-chains, looked after the luggage. Theater-vans
discharged immense basket trunks, marked with letters a foot
high--"Brothers This ... Sisters That ... So-and-so Trio ... Miss
Such-and-such"--and bearing on the handles, on the yellow labels of the M.
H. A. R. A., addresses of Empires and Palaces and of Gra