ROBERT (hoarsely)
I have my hands free. They shan’t touch you, sweetheart!
BIMBO (angrily)
Stop that!
ROBERT
I will speak to her!
BIMBO (sharply)
Speak to her? Yes. But don’t you call her sweetheart.
ROBERT (defiantly, yet with a tender accent)
She is my sweetheart.
BIMBO
That may be; but don’t you call her so to-day, or I’ll have ’em truss you down again.
(He again applies himself to his ledger. Lydia again looks at the brazier, shudders, and begins to weep spasmodically.)
LYDIA (brokenly)
Was it only a little while ago—when the moon rose—and you and I were happy, Robert?
ROBERT
I think—I think life is just a moon path on the sea. It looks all shining white and beautiful—but of a sudden a shark’s fin glides across it. We were swimmers in that moon path, sweet——
BIMBO (interrupting fiercely)
Don’t you call her sweetheart!
ROBERT (defiantly)
Now, look ye, I won’t be told——