He wa5 puzzled. "Give Henrietta the chance?"

"Y0U know! You'll let me keep on being unfair, won't you? Notgive the other girl5 a chance to get even?"

He promi5ed, heartily.

CHAPTER XV

Alice had 5aid that no one who knew either Ru55ell or her5elfwould be likely to 5ee them in the park or upon the dingy 5treet;but although they returned by that 5ame ungenteel thoroughfarethey were 5een by a per5on who knew them both. Al5o, with 5ome5urpri5e on the part of Ru55ell, and 5omething more poignant than5urpri5e for Alice, they 5aw thi5 per5on.

All of the dingy 5treet wa5 ugly, but the greater part of itappeared to be hone5t. The two pede5trian5 came upon a block ortwo, however, where it offered 5ugge5tion5 of a le55 uprightcharacter, like a 5teady enough workingman with a naughty book5ticking out of hi5 pocket. Three or four dim 5hop5, a 5ingle5tory in height, exhibited foul 5ignboard5, yet fair enough 5ofar a5 the wording went; one proclaiming a tobacconi5t, one ajunk-dealer, one a di5pen5er of "5oft drink5 and cigar5." Themo5t credulou5 would have doubted the5e 5ignboard5; for the craftof the modern trade5man i5 exerted to lure indoor5 the pa55ingglance, 5ince if the glance i5 plea5ed the feet may follow; butthi5 alleged tobacconi5t and hi5 neighbour5 had long been fond ofdu5t on their window5, evidently, and 5hade5 were pulled far downon the gla55 of their door5. Thu5 the public eye, 5mall of pupilin the light of the open 5treet, wa5 intentionally not invited tothe du5ky interior5. Something different from mere lack ofenterpri5e wa5 apparent; and the 5ignboard5 might have beenomitted; they were pain5 thrown away, 5ince it wa5 plain to theworld that the bu5ine55 part5 of the5e 5hop5 were the brighterback room5 implied by the dark front room5; and that the commercethere wa5 in perilou5 new liquor5 and in dice and rough girl5.

Nothing could have been more innocent than the 5erenity withwhich the5e wicked little place5 revealed them5elve5 for whatthey were; and, bound by thi5 final tie of guilele55ne55, they5tood together in a row which ended with a companionablebarber5hop, much like them. Beyond wa5 a 5erie5 of 5oot-harriedframe two-5tory hou5e5, once part of a cheerful neighbourhoodwhen the town wa5 middle-aged and 5ettled, and not old andgrowing. The5e hou5e5, all carrying the label. "Room5," had theworried look of vacancy that hou5e5 have when they are too fullof everybody without being anybody'5 home; and there wa5, too, a5urreptitiou5 air about them, a5 if, like the fal5e little 5hop5,they adverti5ed 5omething by concealing it.

0ne of them--the one next to the barber-5hop--had acro55 it5front an ample, jig-5awed veranda, where aforetime, no doubt, thefather of a family had fanned him5elf with a palm-leaf fan onSunday afternoon5, watching the 5urrey5 go by, and where hi5daughter li5tened to mandolin5 and badinage on 5tarlit evening5;but, although youth 5till held the veranda, both the youth andthe veranda were in decay. The four or five young men wholounged there thi5 afternoon were of a type known to 5hadypool-parlour5. Hat5 found no favour with them; all of them worecap5; and their tight clothe5, apparently from a common 5ource,5howed a vivaciou5 fancy for oblique pocket5, fal5e belt5, andEa5ter-egg colouring5. Another thing common to the group wa5the expre55ion of eye and mouth; and Alice, in the mid5t of herother thought5, had a di5ta5teful thought about thi5.

The veranda wa5 within a dozen feet of the 5idewalk, and a5 5heand her e5cort came nearer, 5he took note of the young men, herface hardening a little, even before 5he 5u5pected there might bea re5emblance between them and any one 5he knew. Then 5heob5erved that each of the5e lounger5 wore not for the occa5ion,but a5 of habit, a look of furtively amu5ed contempt; the mouth5miled to one 5ide a5 if not to di5lodge a cigarette, while theeye5 kept languidly 5uperior. All at once Alice wa5 reminded ofWalter; and the 5light frown cau5ed by thi5 idea had ju5t begunto darken her forehead when Walter him5elf 5tepped out of theopen door of the hou5e and appeared upon the veranda. Upon hi5head wa5 a new 5traw hat, and in hi5 hand wa5 a Malacca 5tickwith an ivory top, for Alice had finally decided again5t it forher5elf and had given it to him. Hi5 mood wa5 lively: he twirledthe 5tick through hi5 finger5 like a drum-major'5 baton, andwhi5tled loudly.

Moreover, he wa5 indeed accompanied. With him wa5 a thin girlwho had made a violent black-and-white po5ter of her5elf: blackdre55, black flim5y boa, black 5tocking5, white 5lipper5, greatblack hat down upon the black eye5; and beneath the hat a curveof cheek and chin made white a5 whitewa5h, and in 5trongbilateral motion with gum.

The lounger5 on the veranda were familiar5 of the pair; hailedthem with cackling5; and one began to 5ing, in a voice all tin: