ly upon its side. If
only the clock would come to her aid, forgetting the episode of the
tea-cosy!

"Take you all your time," she said swiftly. "Why, the theatre's all full
by now. The people are all in. They're tuning up for the overture. Look
at it!" She pointed a wavering finger at the clock.

"We're going to have this out--now!" repeated Alf. "You know why I
brought the tickets here. It was because I wanted to take _you_. It's no
good denying it. That's enough. Somehow--I don't know why--you don't
want to go; and while I'm not looking you shove old Em on to me."

"That's what you say," Jenny protested. Alf took no notice of her
interruption. He doggedly proceeded.

"As I say, Em's all right enough. No fault to find with her. But she's
not you. And it's you I wanted. Now, if I take her--"

"You'll enjoy it very much," she weakly asserted. "Ever so much.
Besides, Alf,"--she began to appeal to him, in an attempt to
wheedle--"Em's a real good sort.... You don't know half the things ..."

"I know all about Em. I don't need you to tell me what she is. I can see
for myself." Alf rocked a little with an ominous obstinacy. His eyes
were fixed upon her with an unwinking stare. It was as though, having
delivered a blow with the full weight of party bias, he were desiring
her to take a common-sense view of a vehement political issue.

"What can you see?" With a feeble dash of spirit, Jenny had attempted
tactical flight. The sense of it made her feel as she had done, as a
little girl, in playing touch; when, with a swerve, she had striven to
elude the pursuer. So tense were her nerves on such occasions that she
turned what is called "goosey" with the feel of the evaded fingers.

Alf rolled his head again, slightly losing his temper at the
inconvenient question, which, if he had tried to answer it, might have
diverted him from the stern chase upon which he was engaged. The sense
of that made him doubly resolved upon sticking to the point.

"Oh, never you mind," he said, stubbornly. "Quite enough of that. Now
the question is--and it's a fair one,--why did you shove Em on to me!"

"I didn't! You did it yourself!"

"Well, that's a flat lie!" he cried, slapping the table in a sudden
fury, and glaring at her. "That's what that is."

Jenny crimsoned. It made the words no better that Alf had spoken truly.
She was deeply offended. They were both now sparkling with temper,
restless with it, and Jenny's teeth showing.

"I'm