er, tell me?"

"What I'm saying," said Trampy, aghast, "is for your good, from the point
of view of the business, the salary."

"_My_ business, _my_ salary, damn it!" cried Lily. "_Mine, mine_, do you
understand? And it concerns nobody but myself!"

CHAPTER III

It came as a smack in the jaw to Trampy.

"_My_ pay, _my_ work, _mine_!"

It meant no more pocket-money with which to lord it at the bar. It meant a
cheap cigarette instead of his glorious cigar. It was the end of a
beautiful dream; and the awakening was a hard one. At first, he hoped to
make Lily jealous by going about openly with the stage-girls; but she no
longer paid any attention, seemed to suggest that he had better amuse
himself on his side and she on hers:

"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," she said.

Lily would no longer take his orders; and, because he felt his wife escape
him, it was he, Trampy, who now became jealous. When, from a distance,
among the tables, he saw Lily ride round the stage and all those heads
raised toward her, those opera-glasses pointed at her, he followed her
with an anxious eye. "Miss Lily!" "Miss Lily" was his wife, after all!
Those rounded arms, that lissom figure, those twinkling legs were all his,
every bit of them! He was the husband, by Jove! It was not a marriage for
fun, as with Ave Maria: it was a marriage for good and all, which had cost
him two pounds--"Yes, siree!"--at the Kennington registry-office. And it
wasn't only her flightiness, her smiles at the front boxes, but "_my_
work, _my_ salary, _mine_" into the bargain! She was acting like a bad
wife, forgetting her most sacred duties!

Lily stood on no ceremony with him, took her title of "Miss" seriously:
very flattering for him, very flattering, he must say! He no longer knew
himself: he who, in the old days, used to answer: "My lord, rely on me!"
when a half-tipsy swell invited him to come and drink champagne with some
stage-girls, now became furious if men in the audience, not knowing who he
was, sized up "Miss Lily" before him--her shoulders, arms and the
rest--with reflections such as "I could do with a bit of that!" or, "A
nice little supper ..." He felt inclined to shout in their faces that she
was no "miss," but his wife, by Jove!

He became more and more jealous. The thought of Jimmy, especially, kept
running in his head. He felt a twinge whenever he heard him mentioned. And
Jimmy was often mentioned just at present,