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"Must," she answered.
He hesitated still for a moment, then moved to obey her will.
And so it was they spent their last half-day of freedom out under the
open air in the little seat under the flying stages where they had been
wont to meet five short years ago. There she told him, what she could
not tell him in the tumultuous public ways, that she did not repent even
now of their marriage--that whatever discomfort and misery life still
had for them, she was content with the things that had been. The weather
was kind to them, the seat was sunlit and warm, and overhead the shining
aëroplanes went and came.
At last towards sunsetting their time was at an end, and they made their
vows to one another and clasped hands, and then rose up and went back
into the ways of the city, a shabby-looking, heavy-hearted pair, tired
and hungry. Soon they came to one of the pale blue signs that marked a
Labour Company Bureau. For a space they stood in the middle way
regarding this and at last descended, and entered the waiting-room.
The Labour Company had originally been a charitable organisation; its
aim was to supply food, shelter, and work to all comers. This it was
bound to do by the conditions of its incorporation, and it was also
bound to supply food and shelter and medical attendance to all incapable
of work who chose to demand its aid. In exchange these incapables paid
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