re, on the stages of the different music-halls, people had for
Lily that sort of sympathetic pity which they feel for a performing dog:
they approved of her running away; everybody seemed to know about it.
Poland, it must be said, scored a fine revenge against Trampy, without
counting the artistes who had seen Lily practising and who knew what harsh
treatment meant, the Munich Roofers, among others, real ones, with their
blows of the hat, gee!

Among them, it became the fashion, when they saw Lily, to tap the back of
their hands, and then to applaud with the tip of the nail, as though to
approve her flight. Lily at first was annoyed at the reputation for
cruelty which they were giving her Pa. He was right to hit her, she
thought, sometimes. She was also annoyed on her own account. She was an
artiste, damn it! It was not only a question of smackings! Why, if she
hadn't had it in her...! It was a gift! But, on the other hand, to excuse
the folly of her marriage, she let them talk, without protesting, like a
poor little thing who would still be with her Pa and Ma if she had been
treated "fair."

And there were always angry disputes between her and Trampy. They were
seen to disappear through the stage-entrance, Lily with an arrogant air,
Trampy drooping his head, his lips distorted with stinging replies. Lily,
though she was not performing at the theater, sometimes received a letter
there. When there was one for her in the heap of envelopes, bearing the
stamps of all countries, which had been round the world prior to "waiting
arrival" in the doorkeeper's pigeonholes, Trampy looked at her furiously,
wanted to know. Lily refused. Forthwith, in the passages, or on the stage,
endless disputes went on between them ... oh, not in the least tragic in
appearance and interlarded with "Hullo, boys!" and "Hullo, girls!" to left
and right, whenever they passed any acquaintances. And in a low voice,
abruptly:

"Show it to me, you wench!"

"Shut up, you footy rotter!"

Trampy could not forgive Lily for marrying him on that account. He, who
had only to choose among the crowd that walks the boards or flutters about
in muslin skirts, suffered from Lily's scorn, looked upon himself as a
sultan dethroned before the eyes of his harem. In order to infuriate Lily,
though he did not feel in the least like laughing, he exaggerated his
conquering ways. It ended by affecting his work. Only the night before, he
had got drunk with two "sisters" o