The Crevequers used often to cheer themselves with that book when they were in low spirits. But to-night it did not seem efficacious. Betty supposed she knew it too well; she could think as she read, which was not desirable. So she turned to fiction, and read 'Sea Urchins.'
The church clocks struck ten. Tommy, holding his sketch from him, said, 'How damned bad!' and tore it abruptly in two, muttering, 'Muzzi would if I didn't.' Then he got up and said, 'It's stifling in here. I shall go out.'
He went out.
Betty, her hand over her shaking lips, muttered, 'Poor Tommy—oh, poor Tommy! We've no luck at all, he and I.'
She was aware how he must have faced things, and how once more they stood at the same point.
CHAPTER IX
FURNACE FLAMES
'Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra è forte,
Che nel pensier rinnova la paura!
Tanto è amara, che poco è più morte:
Ma per trattar del ben ch' ivi trovai,
Dirò dell' altre cose, ch' io v' ho scorte.'—Dante.