Her face changed again.  “Not now, Peter,” she said.  “Perhaps one day—­who can say?  Meantime, go on liking me, will you?”

“Like you!” he exclaimed, springing up, “Why, I adore you!  I love you!  Oh, Julie, I love you!  Kiss me, darling, now, quick!”

She pushed him off.  “Not now,” she cried; “I’ve got to have my revenge.  I know why you wouldn’t come home in the cab!  Come! we’ll clink glasses, but that’s all there is to be done to-night!” She sprang up, flushed and glowing, and held out an empty glass.

Peter filled hers and his, and they stood opposite to each other.  She looked across the wine at him, and it seemed to him that he read a longing and a passion in her eyes, deep down below the merriness that was there now.  “Cheerio, old boy,” she said, raising hers.  “And ’here’s to the day when your big boots and my little shoes lie outside the same closed door!’”

“Julie!” he said, “you don’t mean it!”

“Don’t I?  How do you know, old sober-sides.  Come, buck up, Solomon; we’ve been sentimental long enough.  I’d like to go to a music-hall now or do a skirt-dance.  But neither’s really possible; certainly not the first, and you’d be shocked at the second.  I’m half a mind to shock you, though, only my skirt’s not long and wide enough, and I’ve not enough lace underneath.  I’ll spare you.  Come on!”

She seized her hat and put it on.  They went out into the hall.  There was a man in uniform there, at the office, and a girl, French and unmistakable, who glanced at Julie, and then turned away.  Julie nodded to madame, and did not glance at the man, but as she passed the girl she said distinctly, “Bon soir, mademoiselle.”  The girl started and turned towards her.  Julie smiled sweetly and passed on.

Peter took her arm in the street, for it was quite dark and deserted.

“Why did you do that?” he said.

“What?” she demanded.

“Speak to that girl.  You know what she is?”

“I do—­a poor devil that’s playing with Fate for the sake of a laugh and a bit of ribbon.  I’m jolly sorry for her, for they are both worth a great deal, and it’s hard to be cheated into thinking you’ve got them when Fate is really winning the deal.  And I saw her face before she turned away.  Why do you think she turned away, Peter?  Not because she was ashamed, but because she is beginning to know that Fate wins.  Oh, la! la! what a world!  Let’s be more cheerful. ’There’s a long, long trail a-winding.’” she hummed.

Peter laughed.  “Oh, my dear,” he said, “was there ever anyone like you?”

Langton was reading in his room when Peter looked in to say good-night.

“Hullo!” he said.  “See her home?”

“Yes,” said Peter.  “What did you think of her?”

“She’s fathoms deep, I should say.  But I should take care if I were you, my boy.  It’s all very well to eat and drink with publicans and sinners, though, as I told you, it’s better no one should know.  But they are dangerous company.”