t mind, I'll smoke," said Martin. "What's your baby's name?
Bill? Here, Bill!" He placed his little finger in the baby's hand.
"Feeding him yourself?"

"Yes, sir."

"What's his number?"

"I've lost three, sir; there's only his brother Stanley now."

"One a year?"

"No, Sir. I missed two years in the war, of course."

"Hughs wounded out there?"

"Yes, sir--in the head."

"Ah! And fever?"

"Yes, Sir."

Martin tapped his pipe against his forehead. "Least drop of liquor goes
to it, I suppose?"

Mrs. Hughs paused in the dipping of a cloth; her tear-stained face
expressed resentment, as though she had detected an attempt to find
excuses for her husband.

"He didn't ought to treat me as he does," she said.

All three now stood round the bed, over which the baby presided with
solemn gaze.

Thyme said: "I wouldn't care what he did, Mrs. Hughs; I wouldn't stay
another day if I were you. It's your duty as a woman."

To hear her duty as a woman Mrs. Hughs turned; slow vindictiveness
gathered on her thin face.

"Yes, miss?" she said. "I don't know what to do.

"Take the children and go. What's the good of waiting? We'll give you
money if you haven't got enough."

But Mrs. Hughs did not answer.

"Well?" said Martin, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

Thyme burst out again: "Just go, the very minute your little boy comes
back from school. Hughs 'll never find you. It 'll serve him right. No
woman ought to put up with what you have; it's simply weakness, Mrs.
Hughs."

As though that word had forced its way into her very heart and set the
blood free suddenly, Mrs. Hughs' face turned the colour of tomatoes. She
poured forth words:

"And leave him to that young girl--and leave him to his wickedness! After
I've been his wife eight years and borne him five! after I've done what I
have for him! I never want no better husband than what he used to be,
till she came with her pale face and her prinky manners, and--and her
mouth that you can tell she's bad by. Let her keep to her
profession--sitting naked's what she's fit for--coming here to decent
folk---" And holding out her wrists to Thyme, who had shrunk back, she
cried: "He's never struck me before. I got these all because of her new
clothes!"

Hearing his mother speak with such strange passion, the baby howled. Mrs.
Hughs stopped, and took him up. Pressing him close to her thin bosom,
she looked above his little dingy head at the two young p