elligence!" shrieked Effie. "_Nothing_ is bigger
than intelligence. Your man is a hefty brute. His yellow eyes
_aren't_ intelligent. They're _animal_--"

"No," said Alvina. "Something else. I wish he didn't attract me--"

"There! Because you're not content to be at the mercy of _Forces_!"
cried Effie. "I'm not. I'm not. I want to be myself. And so forces
tear me to pieces! Tear me to pie--eee--Oh-h-h! No!--"

Downstairs Tommy had walked Ciccio back into the house again, and
the two men were drinking port in the study, discussing Italy, for
which Tommy had a great sentimental affection, though he hated all
Italian music after the younger Scarlatti. They drank port all
through the night, Tommy being strictly forbidden to interfere
upstairs, or even to fetch the doctor. They drank three and a half
bottles of port, and were discovered in the morning by Alvina fast
asleep in the study, with the electric light still burning. Tommy
slept with his fair and ruffled head hanging over the edge of the
couch like some great loose fruit, Ciccio was on the floor, face
downwards, his face in his folded arms.

Alvina had a great difficulty in waking the inert Ciccio. In the
end, she had to leave him and rouse Tommy first: who in rousing fell
off the sofa with a crash which woke him disagreeably. So that he
turned on Alvina in a fury, and asked her what the hell she thought
she was doing. In answer to which Alvina held up a finger warningly,
and Tommy, suddenly remembering, fell back as if he had been struck.

"She is sleeping now," said Alvina.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" he cried.

"It isn't born yet," she said.

"Oh God, it's an accursed fugue!" cried the bemused Tommy. After
which they proceeded to wake Ciccio, who was like the dead doll in
Petrushka, all loose and floppy. When he was awake, however, he
smiled at Alvina, and said: "Allaye!"

The dark, waking smile upset her badly.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WEDDED WIFE

The upshot of it all was that Alvina ran away to Scarborough without
telling anybody. It was in the first week in October. She asked for
a week-end, to make some arrangements for her marriage. The marriage
was presumably with Dr. Mitchell--though she had given him no
definite word. However, her month's notice was up, so she was
legally free. And therefore she packed a rather large bag with all
her ordinary things, and set off in her everyday dress, leaving the
nursing paraphernalia behind.

She knew Sc