nked, and another said: 'Go it, Liza!'

She fired up with the dignity of outraged innocence.

'Wot d'yer mean by thet?' she said; 'd'yer think I'm kiddin'?'

'Kiddin'? No! You've only just come up from the country, ain't yer?'

'Think I'm kidding? What d'yer think I want ter kid for? Liars never
believe anyone, thet's fact.'

'Na then, Liza, don't be saucy.'

'Saucy! I'll smack yer in the eye if yer sy much ter me. Come on,' she
said to Jim, who had been standing sheepishly by; and they walked
away.

The men shouted: 'Now we shan't be long!' and went off laughing.

After that they decided to go where there was no chance at all of
their being seen. They did not meet till they got over Westminster
Bridge, and thence they made their way into the park; they would lie
down on the grass in one another's arms, and thus spend the long
summer evenings. After the heat of the day there would be a gentle
breeze in the park, and they would take in long breaths of the air; it
seemed far away from London, it was so quiet and cool; and Liza, as
she lay by Jim's side, felt her love for him overflowing to the rest
of the world and enveloping mankind itself in a kind of grateful
happiness. If it could only have lasted! They would stay and see the
stars shine out dimly, one by one, from the blue sky, till it grew
late and the blue darkened into black, and the stars glittered in
thousands all above them. But as the nights grew cooler, they found it
cold on the grass, and the time they had there seemed too short for
the long journey they had to make; so, crossing the bridge as before,
they strolled along the Embankment till they came to a vacant bench,
and there they would sit, with Liza nestling close up to her lover and
his great arms around her. The rain of September made no difference to
them; they went as usual to their seat beneath the trees, and Jim
would take Liza on his knee, and, opening his coat, shelter her with
it, while she, with her arms round his neck, pressed very close to
him, and occasionally gave a little laugh of pleasure and delight.
They hardly spoke at all through these evenings, for what had they to
say to one another? Often without exchanging a word they would sit for
an hour with their faces touching, the one feeling on his cheek the
hot breath from the other's mouth; while at the end of the time the
only motion was an upraising of Liza's lips, a bending down of Jim's,
so that they might meet and kiss. Som