he set out to meet and escort
Millie home.

CHAPTER XX

MILLIE LEAVES HOME

Bindle's visits to "the pictures" with Millie had become a weekly
institution. Mr. Hearty had made several tentative attempts to
interfere. He had mentioned more than once the evil influence of the
cinema, and had called attention to paragraphs in the newspapers and
the remarks of magistrates in support of his view. Bindle had,
however, been firm, inspired by the fear and appeal he saw in Millie's
eyes.

"Look 'ere, 'Earty," he would say, "I'm an ole warrior. You an' my
Little Rosebud at 'ome 'ave 'elped me, an' there ain't a known sin that
I can't dodge. Millie's all right wi' me. When they kiss I 'olds me
'at over 'er eyes."

Millie would blush, and Mr. Hearty, who was never equal to Bindle's
persistent good-humour and racy speech, would allow the matter to drop.

A great change had come over Millie. She was gayer and brighter, her
laugh was more frequently heard, and she seemed to be developing
opinions of her own. In her dress she was more extravagant, although
always neat and refined.

Mr. Hearty became conscious of the change. His eyes were often upon
his daughter, and his slow-moving brain at work seeking for some
explanation of this new phenomenon.

Had he been told of the happiness that had come into her life, he would
have been unable to understand it working so great a change. He would
also have disapproved, for to his narrow faith any happiness that
sprang from association of the opposite sexes, however innocent, was
the happiness of sin.

In a passive way Mrs. Hearty also had noticed the change. She had even
gone to the length of remarking upon it to Bindle.

"She's growin' into a woman, Martha," had been Bindle's diagnosis; "an'
an uncommon pretty woman, too. I s'pose she gets it from 'Earty," he
added, whereat Mrs. Hearty had subsided into waves of mirth.

At first Bindle had been in some doubt as to the wisdom of his action
in encouraging the romance between the young lovers; but as it
progressed and he saw their devotion and Millie's happiness, all
scruples vanished.

"I may be a silly ole fool," he muttered to himself one night as he
left the radiant Milly at her door, "but I'm 'elpin' them two kids to
be 'appy, an' after all, 'appiness is the thing wot matters. If yer
can get it through lookin' into a gal's eyes, it's better'n gettin' it
through lookin' into a beer-glass. I'd sooner be 'app