o good, Alf. It'll never be any good as long as I
live."

iii

Alf put out his hand and covered Jenny's hand with it; and the hand he
held, after a swift movement, remained closely imprisoned. And just at
that moment, when the two were striving for mastery, the door opened and
Emmy came back into the room. She was fully dressed for going out, her
face charmingly set off by the hat she had offered earlier to Jenny, her
eyes alight with happiness, her whole bearing unutterably changed.

"_Now_ who's waiting!" she demanded; and at the extraordinary sight
before her she drew a quick breath, paling. It did not matter that the
clinging hands were instantly apart, or that Alf rose hurriedly to meet
her. "What's that?" she asked, in a trembling tone. "What are you
doing?" As though she felt sick and faint, she sat sharply down upon her
old chair near the door. Jenny rallied.

"Only a kid's game," she said. "Nothing at all." Alf said nothing,
looking at neither girl. Emmy tried to speak again; but at first the
words would not come. Finally she went on, with dreadful understanding.

"Didn't you want to take me, Alf? Did you want her to go?"

It was as though her short absence, perhaps even the change of costume,
had worked a curious and cognate change in her mind. Perhaps it was that
in her flushed happiness she had forgotten to be suspicious, or had
blindly misread the meanings of the earlier colloquy, as a result of
which the invitation had been given.

"Don't be so silly!" quickly cried Jenny. "Of course he wanted you to
go!"

"Alf!" Emmy's eyes were fixed upon him with a look of urgent entreaty.
She looked at Alf with all the love, all the extraordinary intimate
confidence with which women of her class do so generally regard the men
they love, ready to yield judgment itself to his decision. When he did
not answer, but stood still before them like a red-faced boy, staring
down at the floor, she seemed to shudder, and began despairingly to
unfasten the buttons of her thick coat. Jenny darted up and ran to check
the process.

"Don't be a fool!" she breathed. "Like that! You've got no time for a
scene." Turning to Alf, she motioned him with a swift gesture to the
door. "Look sharp!" she cried.

"I'm not going!" Emmy struggled with Jenny's restraining hands. "It's no
good fussing me, Jenny.... I'm not going. He can take who he likes. But
it's not me."

Alf and Jenny exchanged angry glances, each bitterly blaming th