"Ern's ma familiar friend--has been for years. He trusts me--look at what he did that last night. And sitha! A'm a mon men do trust. That's ma reputation--earned too. A never sold a pal yet, big or little. And now--A'll betray ma own mate behind his back; ma mate that's gone fightin ma battles in the cause for which A've lived twenty years; ma mate that trusts me--and all for the sake of loov." The great fellow was trembling himself now. "Am A a rotter?--You know A'm none. Am A a mon? You know A am. The measure o ma sin is the measure o ma loov. Judge for yourself." He was battening down the furnace behind steel-doors; but she could hear the roar of the flames. "That's loov. A'll lose all to win all; and A've more than most to lose. A'll lose ma life to save ma soul--and that's you. Are you for it?--Was a time A thought nowt o women: now A think o nought but the One Woman.... Now then!--Take it or leave it!--Choose your path!--Will you throw a loov like that away--the loov of a mon--for what?--A chap you don't trust, a chap you can't respect, a chap who's let you and the children down and will again, a chap you're never like to see again--a feeble feckless sot, and son of a sot--" She put both hands to her ears. He wrenched them fiercely aside and held them. She stood before him, her hands imprisoned in his, her eyes shut, on her face the look of one awaiting the blows about to rain down in her defencelessness. "I may ha doubted him once, Joe. But I knaw him better now. May he forgive me--and you too; all the wrong I done you both. I knaw him, and myself, better than I did a while back. And now he's won me, I'll never loose him, _never_." She spoke with a passion which convinced even that stubborn lover. He drew back, and she knew from the sound of his breathing that she had beaten him. "Then you was playin wi me?" He brooded over her, sullen and smouldering. She put out her hands to him with something of the appeal of a child. "Hap a while back when you called me so strong I _did_ answer you--more'n I should--not knawin you cared so much, Joe. And may be I thart if Ernie saw there was anudder man around hap it'd ginger him jealous and help us along. I was fighting for my home ... and my children ... and for him, Joe.... And when a woman's fighting..." She broke off and gasped. He met her remorselessly. "Then yo've chosen ... It's goodbye." She laid her hands upon his shoulders. "But not like that.--Kiss me, Joe." She lifted her face. Slowly he dropped his hands upon her arms. And as they stood thus, entwined, the window opened quickly from outside, the curtains parted, and a voice low at first and rising to a horrible scream shrilled, "Caught em at it!--_Mr. Spink_.--Come and see for yourself then! _Mr. Spink_." CHAPTER XL VICTORY AND REVENGE In the fury of his excitement Alf thrust his head and shoulders far into the room.