"Rhoda will be here in a few minutes, then I'll have a short walk with you," she said. "I've nothing to say, though."
Presently Rhoda did come in, and Louie put on her hat and old grey coat. They went out and walked slowly across Eelbrook Common towards Walham Green. There she told Roy that his return could make no difference whatever. "Don't talk such stuff, Louie," he said; "sit down." They sat down on a bench on the side of the common past which the District Railway runs and talked.
The air rang with the shouts of poorly clad children at their Saturday afternoon play; the common was a-crawl with urchins. Into Roy's honest, statue-like eyes tears had come; none came into Louie's. She only shook her head.
"You're only lacerating me," she said.
"But, Louie——"
"You want to lacerate me?"
"But—the little chap——" Roy said presently, with a gulp. "Will you tell a fellow how you manage?"
That Louie did not mind doing, more or less. "And now I must go back," she said, rising.
"I'll walk back a bit of the way with you. I'm not going to let you go like this."
At the little drinking-fountain she stopped. "Don't make it harder," she said. He had been indicating the rabble of children.