Montgomery smiled nervously, and he proposed that they should go over to the hotel to have a drink. 'Oh, I don't like to go up there,' she said, after examining for some moments this hillside bar-room. 'There're too many men.' 'What does it matter? We'll have a table to ourselves. Besides, you'd better have something to eat, for now we're out we may as well stay out. There's no use going back yet awhile;' and he talked so rapidly of his waltz--of whether he should call it the 'Wave,' the 'Seashore,' or the 'Cliff,' that he didn't give her time to collect her thoughts. 'I can't go in there,' she said; 'why, it's only a public-house.' 'Everybody comes up here to have a drink. It's quite the fashion.' The men round the doorway stared at her, and seeing some of the chorus-girls coming from where the donkeys were stationed, in the company of young men with high collars and tight trousers, she almost ran into the bar-room. 'Now you see what a scrape you've led me into, I wouldn't have met those people for anything.' 'What does it matter? If it were wrong do you think I'd bring you in here? You ask Dick when you get home.' A doubt of the possibility of Dick thinking anything wrong clouded Kate's mind, and Montgomery ordered sandwiches and two brandies-and-sodas. The sandwiches were excellent, and Kate, who had scarcely tasted anything but beer in her life, thought the brandy-and-soda very refreshing. The question then came of how to get out of the place, and after much hesitation and conjecturing, they slipped out the back way through the poultry-yard and stables. In front of them was a very steep path that led to the sea strand. Large masses of earth had given way, and these had formed ledges which, in turn, had somehow become linked together, and it was possible to climb down these. 'Do you think you could manage?' he said, holding out his hand. 'I don't know; do you think it dangerous?' 'No, not if you take care; but the cliff is pretty high; it would not do to fall over. Perhaps you'd better come back across the common by the road.' 'And meet all those girls?' 'I don't see why you should be afraid of meeting them,' said Montgomery, who was secretly anxious to show the chorus that if he were not the possessor, he was at least on intimate terms of friendship with this pretty woman. 'No, I'd sooner not meet them, and coming out of a public-house; I don't see why we shouldn't come down this way. I'm sure I can manage it if you'll give me your hand and go first.'