"Because you can't!" Alf almost screamed.
Ernie was still amused.
"I mustn't have her because you can't," he said. "That's the short of it."
Alf cackled horribly.
"Me!—Want her?—I like that."
"I know you did then!"
"Likely!" sneered Alf, his pride swift to arms. "Likely she'd ha took you and said no to me." He pressed closer, his face mottled. "Do you know what I'm worth as I stand here in me shoes? I got £3,000 saved away in the Bank, and makin all the time. If I liked I could retire on meself—at 28—and be a gentleman. That's what I am! That's what I done! That's Alf Caspar! And you tell me she'd ha took up with a dirty coal-porter at 23s. 6d. a week when she could have had Me!"
Ernie flared up.
He leapt to his feet.
"Out of it!" he ordered. "What the bloody l's my marriage got to do with you?"