Yet if only he could persuade her to come with him, if it were
but for an hour! If only she would sit opposite him in that
wonderful little restaurant, where the lights and the music, the
laughter and the wine, were all outward symbols of this new life
from before which her fingers seemed to have torn aside the
curtains! His heart beat with a fierce impatience. He watched
the thin stream of people who left before the play was over,
suburbanites mostly, in a hurry for their trains. Very soon the
whole audience followed, commissionaires were busy with their
whistles, the servants eagerly looking right and left for their
masters. And then Elizabeth! She came out in the midst of
half-a-dozen others, brilliant in a wonderful cloak and dress of
turquoise blue, laughing with her friends, to all appearance the
gayest of the party. Tavernake stepped quickly forward, but at
that moment there was a crush and he could not advance. She
passed within a yard of him, escorted by a couple of men, and for
a moment their eyes met. She raised her eyebrows, as though in
surprise, and her recognition was of the slightest. She passed
on and entered a waiting motorcar, accompanied by the two men.
Tavernake stood and looked after it. She did not even glance
round. Except for that little gesture of cold surprise, she had
ignored him. Tavernake, scarcely knowing what he did, turned
slowly towards the Strand.
He was face to face now with a crisis before which he seemed
powerless.
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