A lovely light welled up into her eyes. At that moment she was nearer loving him than she had ever been. Regardless of Mr. Trupp's presence, she put a hand on either of his shoulders, and regarded him steadfastly, a baffling look on her face.
"Dear Ern!" she said. "Only I'd liefer you didn't say it again. See, it do hurt from you."
CHAPTER XIV
SHADOWS
Ern was not called up after all.
The trap-door through which men had peered aghast into the fires of hell, closed suddenly as it had opened. Only the clang of the stokers working in the darkness under the earth could still be heard day and night at their infernal busyness by any who paused and laid ear to the ground.
England and the world breathed again.
"Touch and go," said Mr. Trupp, who felt like a man coming to the surface after a deep plunge.
"Dress rehearsal," said the Colonel.
"It'll never be so near again!" Mr. Pigott announced pontifically to his wife. "Never!"