Joe leaped back to the door and scowled down the road at the back of the little chauffeur retreating at the trot. Alf excelled physically in only one activity: he could run.
The engineer returned to the kitchen, savage and smouldering. Ruth, amused at the encounter, met him with kind eyes. There was in this man the quality of the ferocious male she loved. He marched up to her, his head low between his shoulders like a bull about to charge.
"Is yon lil snot after you?" he growled, almost menacing.
She regarded him with astonishment, amused and yet defensive.
"You're not my husband, Mr. Burt," she cried. "You've no grievance whoever has."
The engineer retreated heavily.
"Hapen not," he answered, surly and with averted eyes. "A coom next though."
She looked up, saw his face, and trembled faintly.
He prowled to the door without a word, without a look.
"Won't you stop for Ern?" she asked.