She smelt it, and then began to eat, picking it to pieces with her fingers.
The red-faced man reached for his hat and put it on with a sullen rakishness. He was looking at Eve out of the corners of his eyes. Being a drunkard, he was ugly-tempered in the morning, and the young woman had given him the cold shoulder.
“Stuck up bit of goods. Looks like the lady. Been up to it, have yer? I know all about that. Governess, eh? Some old josser of a husband and a screechin’ wife, and out yer go into the street!”
She was more struck by the vindictive, threatening way he spoke than by the vile things he said. Her impressions of the night grew more vivid and more pitiless. Something hardened in her. She felt cold and contemptuous, and quite capable of facing this human animal.
“Be quiet, please!”
She turned and looked at him steadily, and his dirty eyelids flickered.
“Mayn’t I speak, blast yer?”
“If you speak to me as you are speaking, I will stop the next constable and give you in charge.”
“Goo’ lord! What the hell are you doin’ here, may I ask?”
She kept her eyes on him.