ring it she laughed out loud.
She carried a dewy bottle and a glass. ''Did you see any ladies?'' I asked her.
1 saw a couple, but they never saw me. They were at the
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scullery door and - oh! they was kissing the guts out of each other!''
I imagined her standing in the shadows, watching them. I went to her and took the bottle, then peeled away the lead wrapper from its neck. ''You''ve shaken it up,'' I said. ''It''ll go off with a real bang!'' She put her hands over her ears, and shut her eyes. I felt the cork squirm in the glass for a second; then it leapt from my fingers, and I gave a yell: ''Quick! Quick! Bring a glass!'' A creamy fountain of foam had risen from the neck of the bottle, and now drenched my fingers and soaked my legs -I was still, of course, clad in the little white toga. Zena seized the glass from the tray and held it, giggling again, beneath the spurting wine.
We went and sat upon the bed, Zena with the glass in her hands, me sipping from the frothing bottle. When she drank, she coughed; but I filled her glass again and said: ''Drink up! Just like those cows downstairs.'' And she drank, and drank again, until her cheeks were red. I felt my own head grow giddier with every sip I took, and the pulse at my swollen face grow thicker. At last I said, ''Oh! How it hurts!'', and Zena set down her glass to put her fingers, very gently, upon my cheek. When she had held them there for a second or two, I took her hand in my own, and leaned and kissed her.