Page:While the Billy Boils, 1913.djvu/131

 another woman―you know what that means, boys?'

Sympathetic silence.

'Well, this went on for two years, and then the other woman drove me to drink. You know what a woman can do when the devil's in her?'

Sound between a sigh and a groan from Lally Thompson. 'My oath,' he said, sadly.

'You should have made it three years, Jack,' interposed the joker; 'you said two years before.' But he was suppressed.

'Well, I got free of them both, at last―drink and the woman, I mean; but it took another―it took a couple of years to pull myself straight'

Here the joker opened his mouth again, but was warmly requested to shut it.

'Then, chaps, I got thinking. My conscience began to hurt me, and―and hurt worse every day. It nearly drove me to drink again. Ah, boys, a man―if he is a man―can't expect to wrong a woman and escape scot-free in the end.' (Sigh from Lally Thompson.) 'It's the one thing that always comes home to a man, sooner or later―you know what that means, boys.'

Lally Thompson: 'My oath!'

The Joker: 'Dry up yer crimson oath! What do you know about women?'

Cries of 'Order!'

'Well,' continued the story-teller, 'I got thinking. I heard that my wife had broken her heart when I left her, and that made matters worse. I began to feel very bad about it. I felt mean. I felt disgusted with myself. I pictured my poor, ill-treated, little