"T-that's what they say I am!" he burst out. "They c-call me a disgrace,
a drunkard! They sent me down from the hospital because they said I was
a drunkard. The girl I was in love with threw me over because of that.
She was married three months ago to someone else. That's why I'm here
now. My third remittance trip--"

He stopped, and she was horrified to hear him sobbing--gasping, choking
sobs that frightened her.

"I came home--tried my damnedest to get a grip on things, but when she
did that trick on me I saw red. They've kicked me out now."

"I am so sorry," she said in a low voice. "You must be so unhappy if
you're a drunkard--whisky--"

She broke off. The old farm came gliding over the waves and settled
round her with a sense of inevitability. She saw the green baize door;
she heard the crying of the wind, the scuttering of the rats: she saw
her father's blazing eyes, red-rimmed and mad. And then she heard him,
pleading, talking to God. Louis's voice broke in on her dream.

"A drunkard--that's what I am now."

"I didn't think boys were drunkards," she said casually.

"I'm twenty-seven."

"Are you really? All the boys at Lashnagar are grown up when they're
twenty-seven. You seem so young. You're so shy and queer. I'm nineteen,"