Just at
that moment there was not a policeman nor any other being within
sight.
We walked on, and the woman's curses and imprecations upon us filled
the grey silence of the street. At last a porter on his way to work
passed us, and she transferred her attentions and oratory to him.
Dick glanced at me and laughed.
"Well, there was an extensive vocabulary, Victor! How would some of
those words sound in your fiancee's mouth?"
I laughed too.
"You always were good at a sophistical sneer, but vile language has
nothing to do with what I was talking about."
"No; of course not. It does strike one as curious, doesn't it," he
added after a minute, "that a creature like that and the girl we
have been with this evening can belong to the same sex."
"Well, I don't know," I answered; "I know there is the sort of idea
that it is funny, but somehow it does not strike me more with
reference to woman than to ourselves. I mean it does not seem more
incongruous than that a man like yourself and an offal sweeper
belong to the same sex."
"No; perhaps not. One of those houses is yours, isn't it?" Dick
said.
"Yes; number 2," I answered, as we went up to the door.
"They seem to have turned the light out."
I opened the door and Dick went in. I followed, and when the door
was shut behind us the hall was in nether darkness.
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