Page:Triangles of life, and other stories.djvu/87

 a return to calmness. "Don't you take no notice, Lizzie, me girl. It was all because you walked home from Shepperton wi' Bob that night. Now, I'll show'm. (Impressively.) You walk home from Shepperton with Bob as often as he's goin' that way, when I'm not at home to walk to Shepperton wi' yer. You take a walk out with Bob if yer want a walk an' he's willin', an' I'm at ther bricks an' not able to take a stroll with yer. Jest to show'm, Lizzie. Bob's talk won't do yer no 'arm, Lizzie. There's gipsies and tramps, an'—I was obliged to Bob that night, Lizzie, I was. Jest to show'm. I've never been mixed with no talk in my life before like this, an' I won't. But we'll show'm, Lizzie, an' look here, Lizzie, me lass, you can let 'em know I told yer, if yer like, just to let 'em know what I think on it."

Lizzie said she wouldn't be bothered. "But we must be bothered about things like this, Lizzie. But don't you forgit. We'll show'm. Don't you worry. You jest do as I tell yer."

Lizzie said she wouldn't worry.

"God forgive Billy," he said, rendered desperate by her utter indifference towards the man he really worshipped, "God forgive Billy ! but Bob—Bob saved my life with the feaver in in Australia, as I never talk about—an' pulled me through, an'—an' help me home an'—an' God forgive Billy! Bob's married, an' had trouble, an'—an'—Lizzie—has got a kid a little girl with some people in Australia, as he's slavin' for, an'—breakin' his heart for. Who'd