"And how are you going to refuse it? Keep it. It is an emblem of what you
are, honey. The poor devil!"
And he put his arm round her. He understood. Why not? There are certain
attractions which are irresistible, and Jane was unconscious of her
possessions.
Jane raised the bottom layer of cotton wool. What impulse led her to do
this she could not say, but she found a slip of paper across which was
written: "An' I learned about women from 'er."
All this while, across the street, in the shadow of an areaway, stood a
man in a mackintosh and a felt hat drawn well down. He had watched the van
disgorge and roll away, the arrival and the departure of the messenger
boy.
He began to intone softly: "'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can
the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house
for love, it would utterly be contemned.'"
With a sluing lurch to his stride he started off down the street, into the
lashing rain. A great joke; and now there was nothing at all to disturb
his dreams--but the dim white face of Jabez Flint spinning in the dark of
the sea.