that there was nothing for it but to go home at once,
that very night. Hence she arranged to go home, and hence Denry
refrained from interfering with her arrangements. Ruth was lugubrious
under a mask of gaiety; Nellie was lugubrious under no mask whatever.
Nellie was merely the puppet of these betrothed players, her elders. She
admired Ruth and she admired Denry, and between them they were spoiling
the little thing's holiday for their own adult purposes. Nellie knew
that dreadful occurrences were in the air--occurrences compared to which
the storm at sea was a storm in a tea-cup. She knew partly because Ruth
had been so queenly polite, and partly because they had come separately
to St Asaph's Road and had not spent the entire afternoon together.

So quickly do great events loom up and happen that at six o'clock they
had had tea and were on their way afoot to the station. The odd man of
No. 26 St Asaph's Road had preceded them with the luggage. All the rest
of Llandudno was joyously strolling home to its half-past six high tea--
grand people to whom weekly bills were as dust and who were in a
position to stop in Llandudno for ever and ever, if they chose! And Ruth
and Nellie were conscious of the shame which always afflicts those whom
necessity forces to the railway station of a pleasure resort in the
middle of the season. They saw omnibuses loaded with luggage and jolly
souls were actually _coming_, whose holiday had not yet properly
commenced. And this spectacle added to their humiliation and their
disgust. They genuinely felt that they belonged to the lower orders.

Ruth, for the sake of effect, joked on the most solemn subjects. She
even referred with giggling laughter to the fact that she had borrowed
from Nellie in order to discharge her liabilities for the final
twenty-four hours at the boarding-house. Giggling laughter being
contagious, as they were walking side by side close together, they all
laughed. And each one secretly thought how ridiculous was such
behaviour, and how it failed to reach the standard of true worldliness.

Then, nearer the station, some sprightly caprice prompted Denry to raise
his hat to two young women who were crossing the road in front of them.
Neither of the two young women responded to the homage.

"Who are they?" asked Ruth, and the words were out of her mouth before
she could remind herself that curiosity was beneath her.

"It's a young lady I was once engaged to," said Denry.