Page:Watts Mumford--Whitewash.djvu/268

 I've got a theory that, after all, a woman pays such a fearful price for everything in life that we must consider she's always on the short side of the balance-sheet, and so be extra generous and attend to our own business. And I'm really not such a frightfully meddlesome old body."

He almost smiled at her earnestness, as he gave her his hand and she lightly settled herself in a cab.

"Good-bye," she called.

He raised his hat as the hansom turned and began its zigzag journey northward. Then, plunging into the crowd, he walked on mechanically.

Now it chanced that Victoria, hot and angry from the police-station episode, and Morton, sore and miserable from his interview, both started to walk off their troubles. Together they had contracted the habit. From childhood up they were wont to wear out their griefs and rages in company, walking at a furious gait, sometimes for hours in unbroken silence, till the burdened one would be moved to confidences, and then, the 258