Strumpet City Read Online Free PDF

thought of hell and its fire. How had he remained gentle and kind through all that? Perhaps it was because of the sea and the strand, the beautiful summer strands where even the poorest child could wander and hunt in the pools for crabs, hoping some day to find one that carried money in its purse. She rested her head against his shoulder, linking her arm through his.
    ‘You believed the funniest things when you were a child. You must have been happy.’
    ‘I’m happier now.’ Fitz pushed her hair back from her face.
    They rose and began to walk again. Far away, near the Martello Tower at Sandymount, tiny figures on horseback moved to and fro. The young ladies from the riding schools of Tritonville Road were exercising on the sands. They went back again among the coarse grasses of the sandbanks. When they were seated a moment Fitz drew her down until they were lying side by side.
    After what seemed a long time he said:
    ‘You love me?’
    He had withdrawn a little to ask her and she could see his face. Its tenderness brought her near to tears. She nodded.
    ‘Say it.’
    She paused a moment and then said:
    ‘I love you.’
    ‘And you’ll marry me?’
    I’ll marry you.’
    He drew something from his pocket and held it towards her. It was a ring.
    ‘I know you can’t wear it yet about the house, but I’d like you to take it and keep it with you.’
    She put it on her finger.
    ‘It’s not a very dear one,’ he said humbly. Again the tears gathered because of the way she felt.
    ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said.
    She wanted to give him something in exchange, a memento which would stand ever afterwards for the happiness of the day. She had nothing with her.
    They delayed until the edge of the incoming tide was less than a hundred yards away. It approached slowly over the flat sands, rimmed by an edge of white foam. Here and there streamlets, like the scouts of an approaching army, crept forward in advance of the main body. It was time to go. They left the sandhills and climbed up on to the breakwater which was as wide as a road but unevenly surfaced, for the foundations had moved and the great granite blocks which comprised it had angled in places. Sand and fragments of shells, the remnants of winter storms and furious seas, filled the gaps where the granite had parted.
    They stopped to watch a coal boat moving up river towards the bay. It glided full of peaceful purpose. The waves in its wake rolled towards them and broke at last against the stonework, a commotion about nothing. Screaming and swooping, the white gulls followed the ship.
    ‘How soon do you think we could manage?’ Fitz asked.
    Mary wasn’t sure. They would have to save money. She told him she would not care to live in a house with others and of her hope that the Bradshaws would help them to get a cottage.
    ‘I have some money saved,’ she said.
    Fitz had none. But his job was steady and, compared with most of the others, not badly paid. They talked until Mary, thinking once more of the time, said urgently:
    ‘Fitz, we must hurry.’
    They began to walk again. In an hour they were back in the streets of the city and Fitz was waiting to see her on to the tram. She was pensive, thinking of the day they had spent together.
    ‘A penny for them,’ Fitz offered.
    ‘I’m feeling sad.’
    ‘About what?’
    ‘Our lovely day—all gone.’
    ‘There’ll be others,’ Fitz said.
    ‘Will you think about it—I mean tonight when you’re working?’
    ‘Nearly all the time.’
    ‘Here’s my tram,’ she said. On and off she had been wishing for something to give him and now the solution occurred to her. She took Rashers’ ribbons from her coat and pushed them into his hand. He looked at them, puzzled.
    ‘To remember,’ she said.
    She was afraid he might laugh, or that he might think she was mad. Or, because he was not in favour of the King, that he might be angry.
    He took them gravely and said:
    ‘I’ll keep them, always.’
    Her heart