They tried on one or two
occasions to go by Tube, but they missed the swing of the open air,
the rush of the wind, and their independence of men and women. Often
he tried to persuade her to stay with him for luncheon and the
afternoon, but she was wiser than he.
"No," she said, "everything depends on keeping them quiet. A little
later on it will be lovely. You must leave that part of it to me."
She promised him definitely that soon they should go to a matinee
together, but she would not give her word about a whole evening. In
some strange way she was frightened of the evening, although she had
already pledged her word to him on something much more final: "No,"
she thought to herself, "when the moment comes for me to leave
everything, I will go, but he shall know that I am not doing it
cheaply, simply for an evening's fun." He felt something of that
too, and did not try to persuade her. He hugged his unselfishness;
for the first time in his life it seemed to him that he wanted to
follow somebody else's will; with the other women it had been so
different, if they had not wanted to obey him he had left them.
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