“Mil, what th’ hell do we care for him or anybody? Let’s cut out this sneakin’-in-the-back-door business. Let’s blow!” There was silence for a long time after that. “Where’d we go, Si?” “I gotta swell chance to go down to Jersey and get a job in a shipyards. They’re payin’ big money for riveters. A feller was tellin’ to the shop yesterday that if we get fightin’ the Germans, them that works on ships won’t have to go across. Let’s blow, Mil! Let’s get outta here for good and all!” “There’s Ma and Pa and the kids——” “Yer Ma and Pa wanner see you happy, don’t they? And they know Nat ain’t doin’ it. Then what’s the answer? Besides, I can get along with your Pa a lot better’n Nat. Yer Pa and me speak the same language!” Another lunge of the couch springs. “Treat me rough, kid!” cried the girl softly. “Treat me rough enough and—I might!” Nathan reached up and pulled on the light. II Milly shrieked. Plumb sat stunned. He blinked in the abrupt illumination like an imbecile. Nathan arose to his full height. He viewed the two. He drew a long breath for strength, poise and self-control. Then he leaned back against the table and regarded them gravely. Milly sat up on the edge of the sofa. Her hair was down and her bodice open. Hairpins dropped on the hard, polished floor at her feet. “Where’d you come from?” she cried when she could speak. “This chair! I’ve been sitting here since nine o’clock.” “You heard?” “Yes—I heard! How could I help it?” Milly mustered up her courage. “You dirty, eavesdropping sneak!” Nathan raised his hand. On his harrowed face was a sad, disillusioned smile. He addressed himself to Plumb. “How long has it been going on, Si?” The steam-fitter was dressed in his Sunday-evening best. His Sunday-evening best was slightly rumpled by his liaison with Milly. Once he cast his eyes about as though debating whether to try for the door or dash through the window glass. “How long has what been going on?” he asked weakly. “Come, come! Let’s not spar. It isn’t necessary.” Nathan took his hands from the table edge and folded his arms. “You needn’t try to get up nerve to leap through the glass. I’m not going to hurt you!—I may be a poet but I’m not quite a fool.” Si breathed easier. He sat up. They were a cheap, disheveled, foolish-looking pair, ranged there side by side, a cow of a woman and a bull of a man. Was there any reason why they should not seek each other’s embrace? “I been lovin’ Mil ever since you married her.” The steam-fitter confessed it sheepishly, picking at his broken finger nails. “I was lovin’ of her when you stepped in to the shop and cut me out. If you’re goin’ to blame anybody, blame yourself!” “I am blaming myself,” Nathan returned quietly. “All I can’t understand is, Milly—how could you do it?” “Do what?” snapped the girl.