xt. Now get
off my knee a bit; some one must get supper, I suppose."

Jacky went through to the bedroom, and began to see to her hat. This
meant blowing at it with short sharp puffs. Leonard tidied up the
sitting-room, and began to prepare their evening meal. He put a penny
into the slot of the gas-meter, and soon the flat was reeking with
metallic fumes. Somehow he could not recover his temper, and all the
time he was cooking he continued to complain bitterly.

"It really is too bad when a fellow isn't trusted. It makes one feel so
wild, when I've pretended to the people here that you're my wife--all
right, all right, you SHALL be my wife--and I've bought you the ring to
wear, and I've taken this flat furnished, and it's far more than I can
afford, and yet you aren't content, and I've also not told the truth
when I've written home." He lowered his voice. "He'd stop it." In a tone
of horror, that was a little luxurious, he repeated: "My brother'd stop
it. I'm going against the whole world, Jacky.

"That's what I am, Jacky. I don't take any heed of what any one says. I
just go straight forward, I do. That's always been my way. I'm not one
of your weak knock-kneed chaps. If a woman's in trouble, I don't leave
her in the lurch. That's not my street. No, thank you.

"I'll tell you another thing too. I care a good deal about improving
myself by means of Literature and Art, and so getting a wider outlook.
For instance, when you came in I was reading Ruskin's Stones of Venice.
I don't say this to boast, but just to show you the kind of man I am. I
can tell you, I enjoyed that classical concert this afternoon."

To all his moods Jacky remained equally indifferent. When supper was
ready--and not before--she emerged from the bedroom, saying: "But you do
love me, don't you?"

They began with a soup square, which Leonard had just dissolved in some
hot water. It was followed by the tongue--a freckled cylinder of meat,
with a little jelly at the top, and a great deal of yellow fat at
the bottom--ending with another square dissolved in water (jelly:
pineapple), which Leonard had prepared earlier in the day. Jacky ate
contentedly enough, occasionally looking at her man with those anxious
eyes, to which nothing else in her appearance corresponded, and which
yet seemed to mirror her soul. And Leonard managed to convince his
stomach that it was having a nourishing meal.

After supper they smoked cigarettes and exchanged a few state