" "Don't do this, sweetheart." Almost as if he had said
it, she turned away. But she turned back. This was her wedding
anniversary.
She went up to the man. "You didn't give all of the picture tonight, did
you?" Her voice was sharp; it mustn't tremble.
He looked round at her in astonishment. He kept looking her up and down
as if to make her out. Her trembling hands clutched the bag of pop-corn
and some of it spilled. She let it all fall and put one hand to her
mouth.
A man came down from upstairs. "Lady here says you didn't give the whole
show tonight," said the first man.
The young man on the stairs paused in astonishment. He, too, looked
Laura up and down. She took a step backward.
"What was left out wasn't of any importance, lady," said the man,
looking at her, not unkindly, but puzzled.
"I think it was!" she contended in a high, sharp voice. They both stared
at her. As she realized that this could happen, saw how slight was her
hold on the one thing she had, she went on, desperately, "You haven't
any right to do this! It's--it's _cheating_."
They looked then, not at her, but at each other--as the sane counsel
together in the presence of what is outside their world. Oh, she knew
that look! She had seen her brother and his wife doing it when first she
knew about Howie.
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