"For God's sake take a pull, Ern!" he said, most seriously.
Ernie looked up surprised, read the distress in the other's bearded face, and burned one of those sudden white flares of his.
"I see!" he said. "Alf's been at it again!" and he broke away.
Swiftly he went home, passed the study door, and entered the kitchen.
His mother was out.
Alf, his elbows on the table, and his chin on his hands, was studying a model-engine under the gas-light.
He looked up surlily as Ern entered.
"Keep out of it!" he ordered. "You've heard what mother says. The kitchen's mine at this time. I don't want you."
"But I want you, my lad," answered Ernie, brutal in his bitterness.
He locked the door, and took off his coat.