542 ANGEL PAVEMENT

pretty as all that? This was not an easy question 10
answer, for he had to convey the impression that Lena
was immensely seductive, and at the same time to
suggest that she had no further attraction for him. But
he contrived to answer it, a trifle awkwardly, perhaps,
but he satisfied Poppy.

"Course you never ought to have done that," she cried,
thinking of his terrible assault upon the jeering "vamp.*'
The glance she gave him, however, had more wonder
and awe in it than disgust. It made him feel that he was
not a man to be trifled with. "That was awful, that was.
You didn't reelly know what you were doing at the time,
did you?"

"That's it. I didn't. Nerves, y'know. Highly strung.
A sort of madness, it was. Can't imagine now how I did
it, 'cos I've never been that sort of chap, though, mind
you, I've always had a temper-if I got properly roused.
Still, I don't know how I came to do it, I don't, really I
don't. Must have been properly mad at the time. Seems
strange now, I can tell you, 'cos I don't feel anything
about it now, nothing at all"

"Well, I don't say you ought to have done it, 'cos you
oughtn't, and it's turned out lucky the way it has." She
had a moment of real distress, imagining how it might
have turned out. Then she went on to consider other
aspects of the matter. "But I must say she very near
deserved it, whatever happened, going on the way she
did," She had throughout shown the greatest indigna-
tion with Lena. "Horrible, I call it. Some girls haven't
any real feeling at all. Girl I know—she lives near us,
and she's one of these manicurists—she's just the same.
Treats boys and talks about them, too, in the most awful
way. If they .only heard what she said about them, they'd