Page:Jepson--Pollyooly.djvu/150

 Gwendolen Briggs as I'd never seen you so serious?" cried Ermyntrtide yet more shrilly. "An' you was talkin' somethin' wunnerful all the time, callin' me your slum princess—not but what I'd 'ave yer ter know I live in the Wandsworth Road, a most respecterble nyeghber'ood An' when we came back 'ere you harsked me to nyme the dye."

"Came back here? Asked you to name the day?" wailed Hilary Vance.

"You're never goin' to deny it, when Gwendolen Briggs and a friend of 'ers, nymed George Walker, 'eard you sye it—to sye nothink of Mr. Jymes."

"If half London heard me say it, what's the good of my denying it?" cried Hilary Vance in a tone of utter despair.

"I knew you wouldn't. You ain't one of them as 'ud plye fast an' loose with a young lydy. But I did expeck you to receive me different from this—warmer like," said Ermyntrude in a softer, more alluring voice; and she sidled toward him, with appealing eyes, appealing to opposite corners of the room.

Hilary Vance backed hastily away from her, and said faintly, "The matter has come as a surprise