ng through the night! I'm not myself, he's not
himself. Oh, I think it's horrible. What does he look like, Nurse?
Is he beautiful? Is he a great hefty brute?"

She looked with big, slow, enigmatic eyes at Alvina.

"He's a man I knew before," said Alvina.

Mrs. Tuke's face woke from its half-trance.

"Really! Oh! A man you knew before! Where?"

"It's a long story," said Alvina. "In a travelling music-hall
troupe."

"In a travelling music-hall troupe! How extraordinary! Why, how did
you come across such an individual--?"

Alvina explained as briefly as possible. Mrs. Tuke watched her.

"Really!" she said. "You've done all those things!" And she
scrutinized Alvina's face. "You've had some effect on him, that's
evident," she said. Then she shuddered, and dabbed her nose with her
handkerchief. "Oh, the flesh is a _beastly_ thing!" she cried. "To
make a man howl outside there like that, because you're here. And to
make me howl because I've got a child inside me. It's unbearable!
What does he look like, really?"

"I don't know," said Alvina. "Not extraordinary. Rather a hefty
brute--"

Mrs. Tuke glanced at her, to detect the irony.

"I should like to see him," she said. "Do you think I might?"

"I don't know," said Alvina, non-committal.

"Do you think he might come up? Ask him. Do let me see him."

"Do you really want to?" said Alvina.

"Of course--" Mrs. Tuke watched Alvina with big, dark, slow eyes.
Then she dragged herself to her feet. Alvina helped her into bed.

"Do ask him to come up for a minute," Effie said. "We'll give him a
glass of Tommy's famous port. Do let me see him. Yes do!" She
stretched out her long white arm to Alvina, with sudden imploring.

Alvina laughed, and turned doubtfully away.

The night was silent outside. But she found Ciccio leaning against a
gate-pillar. He started up.

"Allaye!" he said.

"Will you come in for a moment? I can't leave Mrs. Tuke."

Ciccio obediently followed Alvina into the house and up the stairs,
without a word. He was ushered into the bedroom. He drew back when
he saw Effie in the bed, sitting with her long plaits and her dark
eyes, and the subtle-seeming smile at the corners of her mouth.

"Do come in!" she said. "I want to thank you for the music. Nurse
says it was for her, but I enjoyed it also. Would you tell me the
words? I think it's a wonderful song."

Ciccio hung back against the door, his head dropped, and the shy,
suspicious, faintly ma