ut that he was
hers no longer, that he belonged to Ave Maria, since Ave Maria had the
proofs ... _if_ she had the proofs.

"I have them here, Miss Lily, my marriage-lines. I was able to get them,
after he went. I had the certificate witnessed. My brother, when he came
to fetch me, never knew about it. I sewed it into the lining of a
portmanteau; no chance of losing it: here it is."

And she produced a yellow document from her bodice and laid it on the
table.

Lily seized upon it ... read it at a glance ... it was quite regular! Oh,
the footy rotter! Two wives! To say nothing of his thirty-six girls! And
what a fine trick she would play him! At last, she was about to get rid of
her festering sore! She could not breathe for happiness. And, as Ave Maria
was watching her movements, lest she should keep the paper, Lily handed it
back to her, certain that it was in good hands, that it would not be
lost.

Then and there an idea came to her. Trampy would be at the theater that
afternoon with Tom, who, knowing little about all these stories,
interested only in the condition of those biceps of his, had taken Trampy
as his assistant and had told Lily so. And Lily had said nothing,
reserving to herself the right to have him turned off the stage by Jimmy,
with a smack in the eye, before everybody: the footy rotter, coming there
to defy her! Well, there would be no smack in the eye; she would simply
hand him over to Ave Maria, as one flings a lump of carrion to a tigress!

"Wait a bit, you faithful husband!" she growled. "You'll see, presently!"

And, first of all, when Ave Maria rose to go, Lily forbade her to do
anything of the kind, for fear that the brother, who must be out looking
for her, might drag her back to the booth at the fair and then take the
first train to some other place, after getting hold of the Bambinis. And
Lily meant none of all this to take place; she would rather go to the
police and have the brute arrested!

"Stay here, Ave Maria," she said. "I'll give you back your Trampy this
afternoon."

Oh, if she had been alone, how she would have flown at Glass-Eye, to work
off her superabundant joy! It would have been a merciless fight, with
slaps in the Mexican style! But a lady receiving her friends must set a
good example. She contented herself with hustling Glass-Eye by word and
gesture:

"My new dress! My big hat!"

Ave Maria, quite taken up with the excitement of seeing Trampy again, of
having him ba