Page:Delight - de la Roche - 1926.djvu/49

 come out to you! Me comin '  out, filled with a fool's pride 'cause I'd saved enough to get me passage and buy a few sticks of furniture for us to begin with! Married! You call that married! I call it adulatory. She ain't your wife. I'm your wife. You brute. You dirty, low, little brute."

"Keep yer voice down, for Gawd's sake! Do you want me arrested? 'Ow! M'y, you don't understand."

"Understand! Understand! I understand that you've committed bigermy, and I'll 'ave the law of yer! You miserable, connivin' little brute."

Ow, I know it's orful for you," he moaned, "but I didn't go fer to do it—she chivied me inter it. I wish I'd never seen 'er ugly red 'ead, I do."

"Red 'ead," repeated May dully. "I can't 'ardly believe it. Red 'ead on the piller beside yours. . . . Wot's 'er nime?"

"Ader."

"Ader. Ader wot?"

"Ader Masters."

"Liar—" screamed May. "It ain't Masters! She ain't yer wife. I'm yer wife. I'll 'ave 'er in the gaol to-morrer!"

Luckily a sudden roar of voices from the bar deadened her scream. Suddenly Albert dropped on his knees before her, clutching her legs and hiding his face in her skirt.

"She's a regular baggage, she are," he moaned. "She leads me a life. If you're crool to me, I'll just goin' make w'y wiv myself." His shoulders began to heave. The smell of the tannery rose to her from his kneeling body. There was no air in the dark little room. She was stifling. Sweat trickled from her forehead and mingled with the tears on her cheeks. The feel of him kneeling