Philip woke early next morning, and his first thought was of Mildred.
It struck him that he might meet her at Victoria Station and walk with
her to the shop. He shaved quickly, scrambled into his clothes, and
took a bus to the station. He was there by twenty to eight and watched
the incoming trains. Crowds poured out of them, clerks and shop-people
at that early hour, and thronged up the platform: they hurried along,
sometimes in pairs, here and there a group of girls, but more often
alone. They were white, most of them, ugly in the early morning, and
they had an abstracted look; the younger ones walked lightly, as though
the cement of the platform were pleasant to tread, but the others went
as though impelled by a machine: their faces were set in an anxious
frown.
At last Philip saw Mildred, and he went up to her eagerly.
“Good-morning,” he said. “I thought I’d come and see how you were after
last night.”
She wore an old brown ulster and a sailor hat. It was very clear that
she was not pleased to see him.
“Oh, I’m all right. I haven’t got much time to waste.”
“D’you mind if I walk down Victoria Street with you?”
“I’m none too early. I shall have to walk fast,” she answered, looking
down at Philip’s club-foot.
He turned scarlet.
“I beg your pardon. I won’t detain you.”
“You can please yourself.”
She went on, and he with a sinking heart made his way home to
breakfast. He hated her. He knew he was a fool to bother about her; she
was not the sort of woman who would ever care two straws for him, and
she must look upon his deformity with distaste. He made up his mind
that he would not go in to tea that afternoon, but, hating himself, he
went. She nodded to him as he came in and smiled.
“I expect I was rather short with you this morning,” she said. “You
see, I didn’t expect you, and it came like a surprise.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter at all.”
He felt that a great weight had suddenly been lifted from him. He was
infinitely grateful for one word of kindness.
“Why don’t you sit down?” he asked. “Nobody’s wanting you just now.”
“I don’t mind if I do.”
He looked at her, but could think of nothing to say; he racked his
brains anxiously, seeking for a remark which should keep her by him; he
wanted to tell her how much she meant to him; but he did not know how
to make love now that he loved in earnest.
“Where’s your friend with the fair moustache? I haven’t seen him
lately.”
“Oh, he’s gone back to Birmingham. He’s in business there. He only
comes up to London every now and again.”
“Is he in love with you?”
“You’d better ask him,” she said, with a laugh. “I don’t know what it’s
got to do with you if he is.”
A bitter answer leaped to his tongue, but he was learning
self-restraint.
“I wonder why you say things like that,” was all he permitted himself
to say.
She looked at him with those indifferent eyes of hers.
“It looks as if you didn’t set much store on me,” he added.
“Why should I?”
“No reason at all.”
He reached over for his paper.
“You are quick-tempered,” she said, when she saw the gesture. “You do
take offence easily.”
He smiled and looked at her appealingly.
“Will you do something for me?” he asked.
“That depends what it is.”
“Let me walk back to the station with you tonight.”
“I don’t mind.”
He went out after tea and went back to his rooms, but at eight o’clock,
when the shop closed, he was waiting outside.
“You are a caution,” she said, when she came out. “I don’t understand
you.”
“I shouldn’t have thought it was very difficult,” he answered bitterly.
“Did any of the girls see you waiting for me?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.”
“They all laugh at you, you know. They say you’re spoony on me.”
“Much you care,” he muttered.
“Now then, quarrelsome.”
At the station he took a ticket and said he was going to accompany her
home.
“You don’t seem to have much to do with your time,” she said.
“I suppose I can waste it in my own way.”
They seemed to be always on the verge of a quarrel. The fact was that
he hated himself for loving her. She seemed to be constantly
humiliating him, and for each snub that he endured he owed her a
grudge. But she was in a friendly mood that evening, and talkative: she
told him that her parents were dead; she gave him to understand that
she did not have to earn her living, but worked for amusement.
“My aunt doesn’t like my going to business. I can have the best of
everything at home. I don’t want you to think I work because I need
to.” Philip knew that she was not speaking the truth. The gentility of
her class made her use this pretence to avoid the stigma attached to
earning her living.
“My family’s very well-connected,” she said.
Philip smiled faintly, and she noticed it.
“What are you laughing at?” she said quickly. “Don’t you believe I’m
telling you the truth?”
“Of course I do,” he answered.
She looked at him suspiciously, but in a moment could not resist the
temptation to impress him with the splendour of her early days.
“My father always kept a dog-cart, and we had three servants. We had a
cook and a housemaid and an odd man. We used to grow beautiful roses.
People used to stop at the gate and ask who the house belonged to, the
roses were so beautiful. Of course it isn’t very nice for me having to
mix with them girls in the shop, it’s not the class of person I’ve been
used to, and sometimes I really think I’ll give up business on that
account. It’s not the work I mind, don’t think that; but it’s the class
of people I have to mix with.”
They were sitting opposite one another in the train, and Philip,
listening sympathetically to what she said, was quite happy. He was
amused at her naivete and slightly touched. There was a very faint
colour in her cheeks. He was thinking that it would be delightful to
kiss the tip of her chin.
“The moment you come into the shop I saw you was a gentleman in every
sense of the word. Was your father a professional man?”
“He was a doctor.”
“You can always tell a professional man. There’s something about them,
I don’t know what it is, but I know at once.”
They walked along from the station together.
“I say, I want you to come and see another play with me,” he said.
“I don’t mind,” she said.
“You might go so far as to say you’d like to.”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s fix a day. Would Saturday night suit you?”
“Yes, that’ll do.”
They made further arrangements, and then found themselves at the corner
of the road in which she lived. She gave him her hand, and he held it.
“I say, I do so awfully want to call you Mildred.”
“You may if you like, I don’t care.”
“And you’ll call me Philip, won’t you?”
“I will if I can think of it. It seems more natural to call you Mr.
Carey.”
He drew her slightly towards him, but she leaned back.
“What are you doing?”
“Won’t you kiss me good-night?” he whispered.
“Impudence!” she said.
She snatched away her hand and hurried towards her house.
Philip bought tickets for Saturday night. It was not one of the days on
which she got off early and therefore she would have no time to go home
and change; but she meant to bring a frock up with her in the morning
and hurry into her clothes at the shop. If the manageress was in a good
temper she would let her go at seven. Philip had agreed to wait outside
from a quarter past seven onwards. He looked forward to the occasion
with painful eagerness, for in the cab on the way from the theatre to
the station he thought she would let him kiss her. The vehicle gave
every facility for a man to put his arm round a girl’s waist (an
advantage which the hansom had over the taxi of the present day), and
the delight of that was worth the cost of the evening’s entertainment.
But on Saturday afternoon when he went in to have tea, in order to
confirm the arrangements, he met the man with the fair moustache coming
out of the shop. He knew by now that he was called Miller. He was a
naturalized German, who had anglicised his name, and he had lived many
years in England. Philip had heard him speak, and, though his English
was fluent and natural, it had not quite the intonation of the native.
Philip knew that he was flirting with Mildred, and he was horribly
jealous of him; but he took comfort in the coldness of her temperament,
which otherwise distressed him; and, thinking her incapable of passion,
he looked upon his rival as no better off than himself. But his heart
sank now, for his first thought was that Miller’s sudden appearance
might interfere with the jaunt which he had so looked forward to. He
entered, sick with apprehension. The waitress came up to him, took his
order for tea, and presently brought it.
“I’m awfully sorry,” she said, with an expression on her face of real
distress. “I shan’t be able to come tonight after all.”
“Why?” said Philip.
“Don’t look so stern about it,” she laughed. “It’s not my fault. My
aunt was taken ill last night, and it’s the girl’s night out so I must
go and sit with her. She can’t be left alone, can she?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll see you home instead.”
“But you’ve got the tickets. It would be a pity to waste them.”
He took them out of his pocket and deliberately tore them up.
“What are you doing that for?”
“You don’t suppose I want to go and see a rotten musical comedy by
myself, do you? I only took seats there for your sake.”
“You can’t see me home if that’s what you mean?”
“You’ve made other arrangements.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that. You’re just as selfish as all the
rest of them. You only think of yourself. It’s not my fault if my
aunt’s queer.”
She quickly wrote out his bill and left him. Philip knew very little
about women, or he would have been aware that one should accept their
most transparent lies. He made up his mind that he would watch the shop
and see for certain whether Mildred went out with the German. He had an
unhappy passion for certainty. At seven he stationed himself on the
opposite pavement. He looked about for Miller, but did not see him. In
ten minutes she came out, she had on the cloak and shawl which she had
worn when he took her to the Shaftesbury Theatre. It was obvious that
she was not going home. She saw him before he had time to move away,
started a little, and then came straight up to him.
“What are you doing here?” she said.
“Taking the air,” he answered.
“You’re spying on me, you dirty little cad. I thought you was a
gentleman.”
“Did you think a gentleman would be likely to take any interest in
you?” he murmured.
There was a devil within him which forced him to make matters worse. He
wanted to hurt her as much as she was hurting him.
“I suppose I can change my mind if I like. I’m not obliged to come out
with you. I tell you I’m going home, and I won’t be followed or spied
upon.”
“Have you seen Miller today?”
“That’s no business of yours. In point of fact I haven’t, so you’re
wrong again.”
“I saw him this afternoon. He’d just come out of the shop when I went
in.”
“Well, what if he did? I can go out with him if I want to, can’t I? I
don’t know what you’ve got to say to it.”
“He’s keeping you waiting, isn’t he?”
“Well, I’d rather wait for him than have you wait for me. Put that in
your pipe and smoke it. And now p’raps you’ll go off home and mind your
own business in future.”
His mood changed suddenly from anger to despair, and his voice trembled
when he spoke.
“I say, don’t be beastly with me, Mildred. You know I’m awfully fond of
you. I think I love you with all my heart. Won’t you change your mind?
I was looking forward to this evening so awfully. You see, he hasn’t
come, and he can’t care twopence about you really. Won’t you dine with
me? I’ll get some more tickets, and we’ll go anywhere you like.”
“I tell you I won’t. It’s no good you talking. I’ve made up my mind,
and when I make up my mind I keep to it.”
He looked at her for a moment. His heart was torn with anguish. People
were hurrying past them on the pavement, and cabs and omnibuses rolled
by noisily. He saw that Mildred’s eyes were wandering. She was afraid
of missing Miller in the crowd.
“I can’t go on like this,” groaned Philip. “It’s too degrading. If I go
now I go for good. Unless you’ll come with me tonight you’ll never see
me again.”
“You seem to think that’ll be an awful thing for me. All I say is, good
riddance to bad rubbish.”
“Then good-bye.”
He nodded and limped away slowly, for he hoped with all his heart that
she would call him back. At the next lamp-post he stopped and looked
over his shoulder. He thought she might beckon to him—he was willing to
forget everything, he was ready for any humiliation—but she had turned
away, and apparently had ceased to trouble about him. He realised that
she was glad to be quit of him.