Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham [162]
“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 comer 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 toward 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 mustache coming out of the shop. He knew by now that he was called Miller. He was a naturalized German, who had anglicized 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