434 ANGEL PAVEMENT

mind, as if borne there by white virginal sails, the com-
forting thought of aspirin and her hot-water-bottle.

WHEN he asked her, two days later, to spend another
evening with him, she gladly accepted, although she had
told herself several times before that she would refuse;
and after that they spent a good deal of time together.
They would have dinner somewhere, and then amuse
themselves by visiting some show of his choice. They
saw the new Jerry Jerningham musical comedy and a
crook play; they went twice to the Colladium; they tried
a talkie or two; and one exciting night he took her to
a big boxing match. She never really learned a great deal
about him; he would talk about odd experiences he had
had by the hour, but he remained mysterious; she never
discovered what his plans were, and at times she
suspected that he did not intend to stay in England
much longer, but this suspicion was only based on
casual vague remarks; she never went near his flat, never
met his daughter, and never heard a single word from
him about his dead wife, if indeed she was dead; and yet
she felt she knew him as she had never known a man
before. Sometimes he was simply friendly or uncle-ish,
dismissing her with a pat on the shoulder or a squeeze
of the arm; sometimes he turned cynically and grossly
amorous, and when he tried to paw her and she repulsed
him, he jeered at her and said things that were all the
more brutal because there was in them a hard core of
truth, and then she saw him as a gross middle-aged toper,
loathed him, and despised herself for having anything to