it with his lips. His moustache brushed the sensitive flesh. Clara shivered, drew away her arm.
When all was over, the lights up, the people clapping, he came to himself and looked at his watch. His train was gone.
“I s'll have to walk home!” he said.
Clara looked at him.
“It is too late?” she asked.
He nodded. Then he helped her on with her coat.
“I love you! You look beautiful in that dress,” he murmured over her shoulder, among the throng of bustling people.
She remained quiet. Together they went out of the theatre. He saw the cabs waiting, the people passing. It seemed he met a pair of brown eyes which hated him. But he did not know. He and Clara turned away, mechanically taking the direction to the station.
The train had gone. He would have to walk the ten miles home.
“It doesn't matter,” he said. “I shall enjoy it.”
“Won't you,” she said, flushing, “come home for the night? I can sleep with mother.”
He looked at her. Their eyes met.
“What will your mother say?” he asked.
“She won't mind.”
“You're sure?”
“Quite!”
“SHALL I come?”
“If you will.”
“Very well.”
And they turned away. At the first stopping-place they took the car. The wind blew fresh in their faces. The town was dark; the tram tipped in its haste. He sat with her hand fast in his.
“Will your mother be gone to bed?” he asked.
“She may be. I hope not.”
They hurried along the silent, dark little street, the only people out of doors. Clara quickly entered the house. He hesitated.
He leaped up the step and was in the room. Her mother appeared in the inner doorway, large and hostile.
“Who have you got there?” she asked.
“It's Mr. Morel; he has missed his train. I thought we might put him up for the night, and save him a ten-mile walk.”
“H'm,” exclaimed Mrs. Radford. “That's your lookout! If you've invited him, he's very welcome as far as I'm concerned. YOU keep the house!”
“If you don't like me, I'll go away again,” he said.
“Nay, nay, you needn't! Come along in! I dunno what you'll think of the supper I'd got her.”
It was a little dish of chip potatoes and a piece of bacon. The table was roughly laid for one.
“You can have some more bacon,” continued Mrs. Radford. “More chips you can't have.”
“It's a shame to bother you,” he said.
“Oh, don't you be apologetic! It doesn't DO wi' me! You treated her to the theatre, didn't you?” There was a sarcasm in the last question.
“Well?” laughed Paul uncomfortably.
“Well, and what's an inch of bacon! Take your coat off.”
The big, straight-standing woman was trying to estimate the situation. She moved about the cupboard. Clara took his coat. The room was very warm and cosy in the lamplight.
“My sirs!” exclaimed Mrs. Radford; “but you two's a pair of bright beauties, I must say! What's all that get-up for?”
“I believe we don't know,” he said, feeling a victim.
“There isn't room in THIS house for two such bobby-dazzlers, if you fly your kites THAT high!” she rallied them. It was a nasty thrust.
He in his dinner jacket, and Clara in her green dress and bare arms, were confused. They felt they must shelter each other in that little kitchen.
“And look at THAT blossom!” continued Mrs. Radford, pointing to Clara. “What does she reckon she did it for?”
Paul looked at Clara. She was rosy; her neck was warm with blushes. There was a moment of silence.
“You like to see it, don't you?” he asked.
The mother had them in her power. All the time his heart was beating hard, and he was tight with anxiety. But he would fight her.
“Me like to see it!” exclaimed the old woman. “What should I like to see her make a fool of herself for?”
“I've seen people look bigger fools,” he said. Clara was under his protection now.
“Oh, ay! and when was that?” came the sarcastic rejoinder.
“When they made frights of themselves,” he answered.
Mrs. Radford, large and threatening, stood suspended on the hearthrug, holding her fork.
“They're fools either road,” she answered at length, turning to the Dutch oven.
“No,” he said, fighting stoutly. “Folk ought to look as well as they can.”
“And do you call THAT looking nice!” cried the mother, pointing a scornful fork at Clara. “That—that looks as if it wasn't properly dressed!”
“I believe you're jealous that you can't swank as well,” he said laughing.
“Me! I could have worn evening dress with anybody, if I'd wanted to!” came the scornful answer.
“And why didn't you want to?” he asked pertinently. “Or DID you wear it?”
There was a long pause. Mrs. Radford readjusted the bacon in the Dutch oven. His heart beat fast, for fear he had offended her.
“Me!” she exclaimed at last. “No, I didn't! And when I was in service, I knew as soon as one of the maids came out in bare shoulders what sort SHE was, going to her sixpenny hop!”
“Were you too good to go to a sixpenny hop?” he said.
Clara sat with bowed head. His eyes were dark and glittering. Mrs. Radford took the Dutch oven from the fire, and stood near him, putting bits of bacon on his plate.
“THERE'S a nice crozzly bit!” she said.
“Don't give me the best!” he said.
“SHE'S got what SHE wants,” was the answer.
There was a sort of scornful forbearance in the woman's tone that made Paul know she was mollified.
