There was a little silence, and they looked at one another shyly. Then the Beggar Man said, with an effort:
"Well, it"s time I was going. I sent my baggage on last night. What are you going to do?"
"I"m going home."
"I should like you to have stayed here, but ... perhaps it"s best for you to go home." He put his hands on her shoulders and drew her gently towards him.
"Good-bye, my little wife."
Faith laid her hand on his chest, as if to hold him away; then suddenly she melted:
"Oh, I hope you"ll soon, soon come back," she said, as a child might have done, and she raised her face for his kiss.
They said good-bye in the street with a handshake, just like ordinary friends, and Faith stood looking after the cab that carried him away.
He had gone out of her life as quickly and strangely as he had entered it.
She looked down at her hand, with its new ring, and a shy sort of pride thrilled her. She was his wife! She was a married woman! The tears that had welled to her eyes dried by magic as she walked on, her head held high with childish dignity. She longed for someone in whom to confide, and a sudden thought came to her. It was Sat.u.r.day, and the girls left Heeler"s at twelve. It was still quite early. She would go along and meet Peg.
With confidence born of her new position, she hailed a taxi, trembling at her own audacity as she did so, and told the man where to drive.
This was the beginning of her new and wonderful life. She hardly gave a thought to the Beggar Man. Her mind wandered off to the spending of the money he had given her, to the gifts she would buy for her mother and the twins. The stopping of the cab roused her with a start. She scrambled out, and to her horror discovered that he had taken her right to the door of Heeler"s, and that it was twelve o"clock, and the girls were already pouring out from work.
She was crimson with confusion as she paid her fare. She wished the earth would open and swallow her up. Several of the girls came up to stare and speak to her.
"My word! Faith Ledley"s going the pace! Someone left you a fortune, Faith? Where have you been? Old Dell was mad when you didn"t turn up this morning."
Faith stammered her reply. "I"m not coming back any more. I"ve left. I want to see Peg. Where"s Peg? Oh, there she is!"
She broke through the little group and ran after her friend, calling to her breathlessly.
Peg turned reluctantly. There was a grim sort of look on her handsome face.
"Well, where have you been?" she demanded.
Faith slipped a hand through her arm.
"I"ve got so much to tell you," she said. "It seems so long since we met. Are you better?"
"Well enough," was the uncompromising reply, and Peg jerked Faith"s arm from her. "What have you been doing?" she asked again.
Faith smiled and blushed rosily.
"I"ve been getting married," she said with sudden boldness.
"Married? A kid like you!" Peg stared. "Well," she said then bluntly, "I only hope he"s some decent chap and not like the rotten sort you were having tea with the other day when I saw you."
The colour died from Faith"s cheeks, her heartbeats slowed down sickeningly.
"What--what do you mean?" she faltered.
"I mean what I say," said Peg firmly. "I thought better of you, that I did--having tea with him! Where did you pick him up I should like to know?"
Faith tried to answer, but no words would come.
"I suppose you thought I shouldn"t recognize him," Peg went on wrathfully, "but I knew him right enough, the mean, selfish brute....
I----"
Faith caught her arm in shaking fingers.
"Peg, do you know who you"re talking about?" she gasped. Peg laughed.
"Do I? I should rather say I do! Once seen never forgotten, my dear! I"m talking about the man you were having tea with the other day--Scammel, the brute we"re all slaving for to make him rich."
For a moment Faith stared at her friend, then she laughed.
"Well, you"re wrong, quite wrong," she said, with a little sigh of relief. "His name isn"t Scammel at all--his name is Nicholas Forrester, and so...."
Peg shrugged her shoulders.
"So it may be, for all I know, but he"s Scammel, and he owns Heeler"s.
Ask him, if you don"t believe me. He"s the man who brought that crowd of women round the factory I told you about--stuck-up crew! He"s the man who cut down our overtime money. Ask any of the girls. Ask old Dell, if you don"t believe me. He may call himself Forrester, or Jones, or any other old name, for all I care, but he"s Scammel right enough, and he"s as mean as he is rich," she added violently.
"I don"t believe it," said Faith. She was surprised at her own boldness.
As a rule, she never dared to contradict Peg, but her heart sprang to the defence of this man whom she had so recently married. He was good and generous. She had had ample proof of it.
Peg began to walk on quickly. There was a sullen look in her handsome eyes. Faith had almost to run to keep pace with her.
"Don"t walk so fast," she broke out at last breathlessly. "What"s the hurry when I haven"t seen you for so long?"
"I"ve been ill," was the uncompromising reply.
"I know, and I"m ever so sorry. I came up here particularly to see you, Peg--it"s unkind to talk to me like this."
Peg slackened her steps a little. She was very fond of Faith, but because she considered her weak and unfit to take care of herself she thought it as well to be angry with her sometimes.
"Oh, well," she said more graciously; "it"s no use going for you, I suppose. You"re only a kid, after all." She smiled faintly. "What sort of a man have you married? And does your mother know?"
Faith coloured a little. She answered nervously that her mother did not know yet, but that she was going to tell her when she got home.
Peg said "Humph!" and added that she did not think Mrs. Ledley would be particularly pleased.
"Are you ashamed of the man or what?" she demanded bluntly. "He can"t be much of a chap not to have wanted to see your mother."
Again Faith rushed eagerly to his defence.
"He did want to. It was my fault that she was not told. It was my suggestion. I wanted to surprise her."
Peg laughed grimly.