. well,
I ... a ... suppose I do...."

Emmy gave a little cry, that was half a smothered laugh of happiness at
her triumph. It was not bad! She had made him admit it on the first
evening. Later, when she was more at ease, he should be more explicit.

x

"Well," said Alf, instantly regretting his admission, and inclined to
bluster. "Now I suppose you're satisfied?"

"Awfully!" breathed Emmy. "You're a dear good soul. You're splendid,
Alf!"

For a few minutes more they remained in that benign, unforgettable
shadow; and then, very slowly, with Alf's arm about Emmy's waist, and
Emmy's shoulder so confidingly against his breast, they began to return
homewards. Both spoke very subduedly, and tried to keep their shoes from
too loudly striking the pavement as they walked; and the wandering wind
came upon them in glee round every corner and rustled like a busybody
among all the consumptive bushes in the front gardens they passed.
Sounds carried far. A long way away they heard the tramcars grinding
along the main road. But here all was hush, and the beating of two
hearts in unison; and to both of them happiness lay ahead. Their aims
were similar, in no point jarring or divergent. Both wanted a home, and
loving labour, and quiet evenings of pleasant occupation. To both the
daily work came with regularity, not as an intrusion or a wrong to
manhood and womanhood; it was inevitable, and was regarded as
inevitable. Neither Emmy nor Alf ever wondered why they should be
working hard when the sun shone and the day was fine. Neither compared
the lot accorded by station with an ideal fortune of blessed ease. They
were not temperamentally restless. They both thought, with a practical
sense that is as convenient as it is generally accepted, "somebody must
do the work: may as well be me." No discontent would be theirs. And Alf
was a good worker at the bench, a sober and honest man; and Emmy could
make a pound go as far as any other woman in Kennington Park. They had
before them a faithful future of work in common, of ideals (workaday
ideals) in common; and at this instant they were both marvellously
content with the immediate outlook. Not for them to change the order of
the world.

"I feel it's so suitable," Emmy startlingly said, in a hushed tone, as
they walked. "Your ... you know ... 'supposing you do' ... me; and
me ... doing the same for you."

Alf looked solemnly round at her. His Emmy skittish? It was not what he
had though