Coquette

wouldn't!"

  "No. You're going to live somewhere else. I want you to get away fromhere. You're going to have two decent rooms ... in Stoke Newington. Realpaper on the walls, and a carpet, and new mattress that isn't like twohorse troughs."

  "I won't take nothing from him."

  "No. From me. Out of my wages."

  "You ain't going to have.... Don't be silly. I'm well off where I am."

  "I'm going to keep on at Madam's. I'm going to have plenty money. Andyou're going to move. Got it? I'll see about it to-morrow night, get youin Thursday or Friday. Won't take an hour to settle you in. Then you'llbe comfortable."

  "I'm very well as I am," said Mrs. Minto, obstinately. "I can keepmyself. I'm not going to sponge on you. Not likely."

  "You'll move Thursday or Friday, I tell you."

  It was final. The poor thin little old woman had no fight in her. Shelooked up at Sally, and her face was the anxious face of a monkey, or ofa sick beast that is being tended. Now that she had been comforted aboutSally she had nothing left to say. She made a last feeble effort.

  "I don't want to move. Mrs. Roberson...."

  "Fiddlesticks!"

  "My 'ead!"

  "Your head'll get better if you keep quiet and have real coal and a bathor two." Sally was imperious, and enjoyingly so. Her spirits had risen.She was a general. She looked down protectingly at her mother, and aghost of ancient love rose breathing in her heart. "Silly old thing!"she murmured, with a touch of softness; and knelt suddenly. "Got to lookafter you a bit," she added. "It's you who's the baby now. What a lot ofkids people are! Makes me feel a hundred--and over--when I see whatfools they are. I'm sorry for you, and that's the truth. You and MissSummers and Gaga."

  "Who's Gaga?"

  "He's Mr. Sally Minto," said Sally with mystic insolence. "That's whoGaga is. He calls himself my husband, but he's no more my husband thanyou are, ma. And never will be. But oh, Lor! He's going to be the worryof my life! Ma, did Pa chase you all over the place when you wasmarried? I mean, chase you all about trying to kiss you and fuss you?"

  "No, dear," said Mrs. Minto. "He was drunk. He didn't know what he wasdoing."

  "Hn," Sally grunted. Then she stood up again. "I'm going now," sheannounced. "I'm going back to Gaga. He's ill. I expect he's being sick."

  And before her mother could make startled enquiries, Sally had kissedher and gone to the door. She ran in high spirits down the stairs andout of the front door not laughing, but in a curious way moved by thisconversation and the strange turn which it had taken. She slammed thedoor after her, and met with a sudden squall of wind. And as she wentaway from the house she was conscious of a feeling of relief. She hadescaped from it, and her heart was beating rather fast. All the time,under her speech and her thoughts, she had unconsciously been listeningfor Toby's step upon the stair. Even now, she knew that her shoulderswere contracted with apprehensiveness.

  She hurried along in the direction of Holloway Road, still flinching,with her nerves uncommonly strained. It was such an odd feeling that shehad in thus revisiting her ugly old home. She had noticed it allafresh--the tired linoleum, and the oil stove and the tiny fire madefrom coal blocks, and the stupid old bed and the browned wallpaper--andshe felt that it all belonged to a time when she had been a differentgirl altogether. She had never before been away from home, without hermother, for so long. She had never once been away from this room for anight, until her marriage. And to come thus into the dark street, in awind, with the door slamming behind her, took Sally's memoriesuncontrollably back to the days which followed their first arrival, thedays when she had met Toby and talked to him and walked with him aboutthe streets. She recalled her visit to Mrs. Perce, and the sight of thatgrim figure relentlessly waiting for her outside the Stores; and thestruggle with Toby, and her resultant happiness; and the night when hehad first come to the room while her mother lay in the hospital. Heigho!She had been young in those days; now she felt an old woman, with allthe sense of ageless age which the young feel after a transition fromone kind of life to another. She was in a sense disillusioned. She hadtaken her step, and cut the link that bound her to this neighbourhoodand the starveling room. She had cut the link that bound her to Toby.And he was now swiftly back in her consciousness, in her heart; so thatshe knew she would never forget him because he was the first man she hadloved, and thus forever her idea of a lover. So strong was her emotionthat she felt a strange little dryness in her throat and her burningeyes, and fancied she heard his voice. It was as though two years hadbeen taken away, as though she once again--as she done two yearsago--longed and feared to meet Toby.

  As Sally, with her head bent and her thoughts active, pressed onward,she heard the clanging bell of a passing tramcar, and saw its brilliantlights rush by along the Holloway Road. A cart rattled on the roughstones of the road, and the wind blew the leaves of the bushes in thegardens she passed. And as she shivered a little at the wind's onset sheagain imagined that she heard Toby's voice, and inevitably turned in thedirection from which the sound had appeared to reach her. Everything wasquite dark; but there was a blackness just behind her that was like thefigure of a man. It took shape; it came nearer and nearer. Sally's heartstopped beating, and she shrank back against the railing of one of thehouses. She felt a deadly sickness upon her, a dreadful horror.

  "Sally!"

  It _was_ Toby. He was abreast, inescapable. He loomed over her like afigure of vengeance. Her heart was like water. She was hystericallyafraid.

  vi

  "Hallo, Sally!" Toby was by her side, and his arms round her, and hiskisses on her cheek. "Why, aren't you going to kiss me?"

  Sally's eyes opened wide at his tone of innocent surprise. She sufferedhim to kiss her lips. Toby had not received her letter! He was on leave,and.... She gasped. An indescribable relief caused her to rest limplyand unprotestingly in his arms. Once again they were engulfed inmerciful darkness, hidden from each other and from anybody who mighthappen to pass. She could not think at all; but she was thankful at thisreprieve. Not yet would he kill her. And as they stood embraced she wassuddenly happy, with a passion that astonished her. Toby-- Toby, herlove; and she herself in his arms again, as she had never thought to be.A strange laugh, low and tender, came from her lips. Her cheek wasgently rubbed against his, and her body quite relaxed. Every one ofSally's difficulties suffered an oblivion; they were all dispersed inthe extraordinary mist of sensation which enwrapped her.

  "I _was_ surprised," she murmured, kissing him with all her heart."Didn't expect to see you. Funny to see you ... _so funny_ ... and whenI was thinking of you. I must have known you were coming."

  "I just got in," Toby said. "I say, where you going, Sal?"

  Sally flinched again. Immediately she was conscious of terror.

  "Stoke Newington," she cried; in a flash. What was she to do? What _was_she to do? She was desperate. Fear was strong; but love was stronger. Itwas not only now that she did not dare to tell him the truth in case hekilled her; much more than that was her understanding of the fact thatshe could not bear to lose him. Such gust of thankfulness had shakenSally when she knew that Toby had not received her letter that she wasbrimming now with joy. It was impossible to lose her rapture at themoment of its full glory. She _could_ not tell him.

  "Stoke Newington? Whatever for? Here, wait till I've had some grub....No, I'll come with you now. Get some grub later. Have you got to gothere now?"

  "You musn't come, Toby."

  "Why not?" He was instantly suspicious. His grip tightened, and heforced her to look at him.

  "Didn't you get my letter?"

  "When? Now? I've had no letter. What you going to Stoke Newington for?No, I want to know. You going to meet another chap? I believe you are,you little devil! By Christ! If you.... I _will_ come!" Toby was nowfiercely suspicious. She could tell from his ferocious grip, and theurgency of his tone. "If you're playing that game, I'll kill you. ByChrist, I will!"

  "I'm not. I'm not," cried Sally. "You're hurting me, Toby!"
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  "You swear it?" He relaxed his hold, which was strangling her. In thedarkness he again strove to see her expression and judge for himself ofher honesty.

  "I'm not going to see anybody. I swear I'm not."

  "Why did you ask if I'd had your letter? What you bin writing to me?"

  "Oo, a lot of lies...." breathed Sally. "Silly talk and rubbish. That'sall it was."

  "What about?" He was still intense.