found Pinkey asleep in bed with a
novelette in her hand. She had fallen asleep reading it. The noise of
Chook's entry roused her, and she stared at him, uncertain of the hour.
Then, seeing him fully dressed, she decided that it was four o'clock in
the morning, and that he was trying to sneak off to Paddy's Market
without her. She was awake in an instant, and her face flushed pink
with anger as she jumped out of bed, indignant at being deprived of her
share of the unpleasant trip to the markets. Three times a week she
nerved herself for that heartbreaking journey in the raw morning air,
resolved never to let Chook see her flinch from her duty. As she
started to dress herself with feverish haste, Chook recovered enough
from his astonishment to ask her where she was going.

"To Paddy's, of course," she replied fiercely. "Yer sneaked off last
week on yer own, an' cum 'ome so knocked out that yer couldn't eat yer
breakfast."

A cold shiver ran through Chook. Her mind was affected, and in a flash
he saw his wife taken to the asylum and himself left desolate. Then he
understood, and burst into a roar.

"Git into bed again, Liz," he cried. "Ye're walkin' in yer sleep."

"Wot's the time?" she asked, with a suspicious look.

"Five past twelve," said Chook, reluctantly.

"An' ye're only just come 'ome! Wot d'ye mean by stoppin' out till
this time of night?" she cried, turning on him furiously, but secretly
relieved, like a patient who finds the dentist is out.

"The play was out late, an' we..." stammered Chook.

As he stammered, Pinkey caught sight of a rip in his sleeve, and
looking at him intently, was horrified to see his lip cut and bleeding.
She gave a cry of terror and burst into tears.

"Yer never went to no play; yer've bin fightin'," she sobbed.

"No, I ain't, fair dinkum," cried Chook. "I'll tell yer 'ow I come by
this, if yer wait a minute."

"Yer never cut yer lip lookin' at the play; yer've gone back ter the
Push, as Sarah always said yer would."

"I'll screw Sarah's neck when I can spare the time," said Chook,
savagely.

Chook, the old-time larrikin, had turned out a model husband, but, for
years after his marriage, Mrs Partridge had taken a delight in
prophesying that he would soon tire of Pinkey's apron-strings and
return to the Push and the streets. And now, although Waxy Collins and
Joe Crutch were in jail for sneak-thieving, their places taken by
younger and more vicious scum, Pink