He told himself that he ought to do some work, but the desire to see
more of London overcame his good resolution, and so he left the house
and set out again for the town. He hoped that he might see Eleanor
Moore. If he were to go to the tea-shop at the same hour as she had
entered it yesterday, he might contrive to seat himself at her table
again, and this time perhaps she would listen to him. When he reached
the City, he found that he was too early for the mid-day meal, and so
he resolved to go and stand about the entrance to the office where
Eleanor Moore was employed. He would see her coming out of it and could
follow discreetly after her.... But although he waited for an hour, she
did not appear, nor was she to be seen in the tea-shop, when, tired and
disappointed, he took his place in it. He dallied over his meal, hoping
every moment that she would turn up, but at length he had to go away
without seeing her. At teatime, he told himself, he would come again
and wait for her. He climbed on to a 'bus and let himself be taken to
Charing Cross, where he enquired the way to the National Gallery. He
wandered through the rooms until his eyes ached with looking at the
pictures and his feet were sore with walking on the polished floors. He
felt self-conscious when he looked at the nudes, and he blushed when he
found a woman standing by his side as he looked at the portrait of Jean
Arnolfini and Jeanne his wife by van Eyck. He turned hotly away, and
wondered that there was no blush on the face of the woman. In
Ballyards, a man always pretended not to see a woman about to have a
child ... unless, of course, he was with other men and the woman could
not see him, when he would crack jokes about her condition!... Here,
however, people actually exhibited pictures of pregnant women in a
public place where all sorts, old and young, male and female, could
look at them ... and no one appeared to mind. It might be all right, of
course, and after all a woman in that way was natural enough ... but he
had been brought up to be ashamed of seeing such things, and he could
not very well become easy about them in a moment.... And he became very
tired of Holy Families and Crucifixions!...
"I'll walk back to the place," he said to himself as he left the
Gallery and crossed Trafalgar Square. He dappled his fingers in the
water of one of the fountains, and listened to two little Cocknies
wrangling together....
"They've a queer way of talking," he said to himself.
...and then he started off down the Strand towards Fleet Street and the
City. Eleanor Moore was not in the tea-shop when he entered it, nor did
she come into it while he remained there. He finished his meal and
walked in the direction of the Royal Exchange and just as he was
running out of the way of a 'bus, he saw her going towards the stairs
leading into the Tube.
"There she is," he murmured and hurried after her.
She was at the foot of the stairs when he reached the top of them, and
when he had got to the foot of them, she was almost at the entrance to
the booking-office of the Tube. He tried to get near her so that he
might speak to her, but the press of people going home prevented him
from doing so. He saw her go down the steps and take her place in the
queue of people purchasing tickets, and he walked across to the
bookstall and stood there until she had obtained her ticket. Then as
she walked to the lift, he moved towards her. She was examining her
change as she walked along, and did not see him until he was close to
her. He meant to say, "Oh, Miss Moore, may I speak to you for a
moment!" but suddenly he became totally inarticulate, and while he was
struggling to say something, she looked up and saw him. She started
slightly, then her face became flushed, and she hurried forward and
joined the group of wedged people in the lift. He determined to follow
her, but while he was resolving to do so, the lift attendant shouted,
"Next lift, please!" and pulled the gates together. He watched the
light disappear from the little windows at the top of the gates!...
"I've missed her again," he said.