and with two rusty boiler lids for shields, we faced
each other, uttering our respective battle cries in muffled tones. Angel
had put a battered coal scuttle over his head for a helmet; and, through a
break in it, I could see his dark eyes gleaming threateningly.

With ring of shield we clashed together. I delivered--and
received--stunning blows. Dust, long undisturbed, rose, and blinded us.

How many a gallant fray has been broken up by a screaming woman! Now Mary
Ellen, true to the perversity of her sex, rushed in to separate us.

"Oh, losh! I never seen the beat o' ye!" she cried. "Ye've scairt me out av
a year's growth! Sure the missus'll put a tin ear on ye, if she catches ye
in the cellar in yer collars an' all!" Imperiously she disarmed us, and,
without ceremony, we were hustled up the dark stairs to the kitchen sink.

"It was a tournament, Mary Ellen, about a lady," I explained, with as much
dignity as I could muster, "you shouldn't have interrupted."

"There ain't a lady livin' that's worth messin' up yer clane clothes for,"
said Mary Ellen, sternly. "Lord! To see the cinders in yer hair, an' the
soot in yer ears--it does bate all--" As she talked, she scrubbed us
vehemently with a washcloth.

"Ouch!" moaned Angel, "oh, Mary El-len, you're _hurting_ me! That's my
so-ore spot, eeeoow!"

"Well, Master Angel," said Mary Ellen, "I don't want to hurt ye, but it do
make me heart-sick to see ye bashin' aitch other wid pokers for the sake av
a bit girl that's not worth a tinker's curse to ye! Now thin--here's a
piece of cowld puddin' to each av ye--sit on the durestep where the missus
won't see ye, an' git outside av it."

In a chastened mood we sat outside the back door and ate our pudding. It
was cold, clammy, very sweet, and deliciously satisfying.

To our right the wall excluded any glimpse of the Bishop's garden, and
beyond loomed the Cathedral, with two grey pigeons circling about its
spire.

I yearned to know what was going on beyond the wall. I could not help
fancying that Jane, touched by remorse, was weeping by the fountain for me,
and me only. Angel spoke.

"I say--" he hunched his shoulders mischievously--"let's go 'round and see
what she's doin' all alone, eh?"

I leaped to the proposal. I had an insatiable desire to hear her speak once
more, if it were only to taunt me.

We made the passage stealthily; all the world seemed drowsing on that hazy
Sunday afternoon. The blinds in the Bishop's s