iting for her, and watching her, filled Sally with cold fury.
His innocent delight at her return had the air of being a pretence. She
could not suppose his eager caresses to be other than penitence for
suspicion or an assertion of his claims upon her in perpetuity. The
distress made her unresponsive, even repressive. Her foot tapped upon
the floor even while she could not wholly quell his convulsive nervous
embrace. And Toby did not come.

At last, one evening, her guess was justified. She had taken her coat,
and had walked to the end of the road; and just as she turned back,
without hope, she saw a burly figure almost opposite. It was Toby, in a
sailor's short thick jacket, and his neck muffled, and a cap over his
eyes. He was standing in the shadow, and as she crossed to him allowed
Sally to enter that same embracing darkness which safely hid them both.
She gave a little savage cry, and was in his strong arms, almost crazed
with relief and her physical sense of his so long withheld nearness. She
could feel herself shuddering and trembling, but she was not directly
conscious of this. All she felt was a passionate joy at being able to
abandon all her nervous self-control to this firmness and clenched
vigour.

"Oh, Toby, Toby!" she whimpered, clutching him; and then no more for
several minutes. Toby did not speak. He hugged Sally until she was
breathless, and his hot kiss made her cheek burn. She pressed her
forehead with all her strength against his breast, and longed that in
this moment she might for ever lose all knowledge of the trials which
beset her. The trembling persisted for a long time; and then, as she
was comforted, it began to subside.

"My girl, my girl!" muttered Toby, in a thick voice, warm against her
ear.

"Toby, listen.... Toby, I'm going to have a baby--it's your baby. What
_shall_ I do? Toby!" Sally clung to him. "I'm so frightened, Toby."

"Baby? Christ!" As suddenly, he repulsed her. "You say it's _me_. It's a
lie! How d'you know? You little liar, you. What's your game?"

"Of course it's yours," fiercely cried Sally. "I told you."

"D'you think I believe that!" He was brutally incredulous. He held her
away. "Why, you dirty little liar, you'd swear _anything_."

A ghastly anger took command of Sally.

"I told you," she steadily repeated. But she made no attempt to go back
to him. They stood quite apart in the difficult gloom.

"I know you did. You told me you loved me. You married _him_."