Frank, the organ and the promise

She is going to leave with Frank: kind, manly and open-hearted. They will take the night boat, and she will be his wife and live with him in Buenos Aires, where he has a home waiting.

She remembers how they met: he stood at a gate, his peaked cap pushed back. He used to meet her outside the Stores and see her home. He took her to see The Bohemian Girl, and sang about 'the lass that loves a sailor'. He called her 'Poppens'. He told her tales of distant countries: he had started as a deck boy, sailed through the Straits of Magellan, and had 'fallen on his feet' in Buenos Aires.

Her father found out and forbade her to see him. 'I know these sailor chaps,' he said. He quarrelled with Frank, and after that she met him secretly.

In her lap are two letters: one to her brother Harry, one to her father. She notices her father is getting old; he will miss her. Sometimes he could be nice: once, when she was ill, he read her a ghost story and made toast; once, on a picnic, he put on her mother's bonnet to make the children laugh.

Then, down the avenue, she hears a street organ playing a tune she knows. It reminds her of her promise to her dying mother: to keep the home together as long as she could. She remembers her mother's last night, the organ playing an Italian air outside, and her mother's life of commonplace sacrifices ending in craziness, repeating strange words ('Derevaun Seraun!'). Terrified, Eveline stands up: she must escape! Frank would save her. She has a right to happiness.