sband than you do, Sam," he added, in a low but severe voice.

Mrs. Silk gave a violent start. "Better husband than 'e does?" she
cried, sharply. "Mr. Wilks ain't married."

Mr. Nugent's baseless charge took the steward all aback. He stiffened in
his chair, a picture of consternation, and guilt appeared stamped on
every feature; but he had the presence of mind to look to Mr. Nugent's
eye for guidance and sufficient strength of character to accept this last
bid for liberty.

"That's my business, sir," he quavered, in offended tones.

"But you ain't _married?_" screamed Mrs. Silk.

"Never mind," said Nugent, pacifically. "Perhaps I ought not to have
mentioned it; it's a sore subject with Sam. And I daresay there were
faults on both sides. Weren't there, Sam?"

"Yes, sir," said Mr. Wilks, in a voice which he strove hard to make
distinct; "especially 'ers."

"You--you never told me you were married," said Mrs. Silk, breathlessly.

"I never said I wasn't," retorted the culprit, defiantly. "If people
liked to think I was a single man, I don't care; it's got nothing to do
with them. Besides, she lives at Stepney, and I don't 'ear from 'er once
in six months; she don't interfere with me and I don't interfere with
her."

Mrs. Silk got up from her chair and stood confronting him with her hand
grasping the back of it. Her cold eyes gleamed and her face worked with
spite as she tried in vain to catch his eye. Of Mr. Nugent and his
ingenuous surprise at her behaviour she took no notice at all.

"You're a deceiver," she gasped; "you've been behaving like a single man
and everybody thought you was a single man."

[Illustration: "'You're a deceiver,' she gasped."]

"I hope you haven't been paying attentions to anybody, Sam," said Mr.
Nugent in a shocked voice.

"A-ah," said Mrs. Silk, shivering with anger. "Ask 'im; the deceiving
villain. Ask anybody, and see what they'll tell you. Oh, you wicked
man, I wonder you can look me in the face!"

Truth to tell, Mr. Wilks was looking in any direction but hers. His eyes
met Nugent's, but there was a look of such stern disdain on that
gentleman's face that he was fain to look away again.

"Was it a friend of yours?" inquired the artless Mr. Nugent.

"Never mind," said Mrs. Silk, recovering herself. "Never mind who it
was. You wait till I go and tell Teddy," she continued, turning to the
trembling Mr. Wilks. "If 'e's got the 'art of a man in 'im you'll see."