Authors, English -- 20th century -- Biography; Waugh, Alec, 1898-1981
And he admires this sense of duty, which is probably only an excuse for
a change of frock. And so she returns home to tell her mother how well
everything is going, while he goes to the little Soho restaurant to
engage a table; and then, while he is waiting for her, he makes a
horrible discovery. He has only a pound left; what is he to do? He picks
up the menu, and sees that it will be impossible for him to dine in
anything like the way he wishes for less than thirty shillings. He is a
stranger; the restaurant will not give him credit. There is no one to
whom he can go to for a loan; he cannot ask the girl, on their first day
together, to lend him money. And so, all through the dinner there hangs
over his head the menace of that piece of folded paper. What will happen
to him? He remembers seeing once in Manchester the proprietor pitch an
impecunious client headlong into the street. They could hardly do that
to him. He would be too big, but he will be disgraced in the girl’s
eyes. He has not the presence to carry off such a scene with honour. He
will stammer and mumble, and try to explain, and look foolish; probably
in the end he will leave his watch in bail, while the girl will stand
by him, ashamed of him and contemptuous.
He tries to make the meal last as long as possible; they have coffee and
two liqueurs and endless cigarettes; but the moment comes at last when
she begins to button on her gloves and collect her things.
“I really must go now,” she says, “and it has been such a lovely
evening. Thank you so much.”
And he looks in misery at the piece of folded paper. Then, just as he is
preparing to signal to the waiter and ask for an interview with the
patron, the temptation comes: her bag lies open facing him; she is
looking the other way. He sees money. Here is the way out; perhaps she
will not notice that she has lost it. She is rich. At any rate, he must
run the risk. And, as she tidies her hair in the glass, she sees him
take her money.
She is shocked, terribly shocked, but it is easy to understand her
silence; her curiosity is whetted, she is interested in the young man,
and guesses that one day it may very well be that she will feel more
than interest for him. Money is of no great concern to her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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