So don't be silly! You can be sensible enough if you like, and then I can get along well enough with you.' 'Very well, then I'll drink for another week, and then be off to Canada.' 'You'd better go at once, I should think.' She had moved a little apart from him.

Just then a half-drunken fellow came along the pavement, and in a freak caught Totty about the waist.
Ackroyd was in the very mood for an incident of this kind.

In an instant he had planted so direct a blow that the fellow staggered back into the gutter, Totty with difficulty preventing herself from being dragged with him.

The thoroughfare was crowded, street urchins ran together with yells of anticipatory delight, and maturer loafers formed the wonted ring even before the man assaulted had recovered himself.
Then came the play of fists; Ackroyd from the first had far the best of it, but the other managed to hold his ground.
And the result of it was that in something less than a quarter of an hour from his leaving the music-hall, Ackroyd found himself on the way to the police-station, his adversary following in the care of a second constable, all the way loudly accusing him of being the assailant.
Totty walked in the rear of the crowd; she had been frightened by the scene of violence, and there were marks of tears on her cheeks.

She entered the station, eager to get a hearing for a plain story.