TO-MORROW
Page: 26

shilling to-morrow, and leave everything to you.
I shall. To you. Let him starve."

The window rattled down.

Harry drew a deep breath, and took one step
toward Bessie. "So it's you--the girl," he said,
in a lowered voice. She had not moved, and she re-
mained half turned away from him, pressing her
head in the palms of her hands. "My word!" he
continued, with an invisible half-smile on his lips.
"I have a great mind to stop. . . ."

Her elbows were trembling violently.

"For a week," he finished without a pause.

She clapped her hands to her face.

He came up quite close, and took hold of her
wrists gently. She felt his breath on her ear.

"It's a scrape I am in--this, and it is you that
must see me through." He was trying to uncover
her face. She resisted. He let her go then, and
stepping back a little, "Have you got any
money?" he asked. "I must be off now."

She nodded quickly her shamefaced head, and he
waited, looking away from her, while, trembling
all over and bowing her neck, she tried to find the
pocket of her dress.

"Here it is!" she whispered. "Oh, go away!
go away for God's sake! If I had more--more--
I would give it all to forget--to make you for-
get."

He extended his hand. "No fear! I haven't
forgotten a single one of you in the world. Some
gave me more than money--but I am a beggar now
--and you women always had to get me out of my
scrapes."

He swaggered up to the parlour window, and in
the dim light filtering through the blind, looked at
the coin lying in his palm. It was a half-sovereign.
He slipped it into his pocket. She stood a little on
one side, with her head drooping, as if wounded;
with her arms hanging passive by her side, as if
dead.

"You can't buy me in," he said, "and you can't
buy yourself out."

He set his hat firmly with a little tap, and next
moment she felt herself lifted up in the powerful
embrace of his arms. Her feet lost the ground;
her head hung back; he showered kisses on her face
with a silent and over-mastering ardour, as if in
haste to get at her very soul. He kissed her pale