she thought he looked like the bull on
the hoardings who has "heard that they want more." Emmy stared at her
also, quite unguardedly, a concentrated stare of agonised doubt and
impatience. Emmy's face grew pinched and sallow at the unexpected strain
upon her nerves.

"That was what you thought, wasn't it?" Jenny went on impudently,
shooting a sideways glance at him that made Alf tame with helplessness.
"Poor old Em hasn't had a treat for ever so long. Do her good to go. You
did mean that, didn't you?"

"I ..." said Alf. "I ..." He was inclined for a moment to bluster. He
looked curiously at Jenny's profile, judicial in its severity. Then some
kind of tact got the better of his first impulse. "Well, I thought _one_
of you girls ..." he said. "Will you come, Em? Have to look sharp."

"Really?" Emmy jumped up, her face scarlet and tears of joy in her eyes.
She did not care how it had been arranged. Her pride was unaroused; the
other thought, the triumph of the delicious moment, was overwhelming.
Afterwards--ah, no no! She would not think. She was going. She was
actually going. In a blur she saw their faces, their kind eyes....

"Good boy!" cried Jenny. "Buck up, Em, if you're going to change your
dress. Seats! My word! How splendid!" She clapped her hands quickly,
immediately again taking up her work so as to continue it. Into her eyes
had come once more that strange expression of pitying contempt. Her
white hands flashed in the wan light as she quickly threaded her needle
and knotted the silk.

CHAPTER III: ROWS

i

After Emmy had hurried out of the room to change her dress, Alf stood,
still apparently stupefied at the unscrupulous rush of Jenny's feminine
tactics, rubbing his hand against the back of his head. He looked
cautiously at Pa Blanchard, and from him back to the mysterious unknown
who had so recently defeated his object. Alf may or may not have
prepared some kind of set speech of invitation on his way to the house.
Obviously it is a very difficult thing, where there are two girls in a
family, to invite one of them and not the other to an evening's orgy. If
it had not previously occurred to Alf to think of the difficulty quite
as clearly as he was now being made to do, that must have been because
he thought of Emmy as imbedded in domestic affairs. After all, damn it,
as he was thinking; if you want one girl it is rotten luck to be fobbed
off with another. Alf knew quite well the devastating phra