"Glad rags make all that difference, old boy? Well, I am glad you did
know me, anyhow. How are you? Had long to wait?"
"Only ten minutes or so, and I'm very fit, and just dying for you,
Julie."
She smiled up at him and blushed a little. "Are you, Peter? It's much the
same here, my dear. But don't you think we had better get a move on, and
not stop here talking all night?"
Peter laughed excitedly. "Rather," he said. "But I'm so excited at seeing
you that I hardly know if I'm on my head or my heels. What about your
luggage? What have you? Have you any idea where it is? There's a taxi
waiting."
"I haven't much: a big suit-case, most important because it holds an
evening dress--it's marked with my initials; a small leather trunk,
borrowed, with a big star on it; and my dressing-case, which is here. And
I _think_ they're behind, but I wouldn't swear, because we've seemed to
turn round three times in the course of the journey, but it may have
been four!"
Peter chuckled. She was just the old Julie, but yet with a touch of
something more shining in her eyes, and underlying even the simplest
words.
"Well, you stand aside just a moment and I'll go and see," he said, and
he hurried off in the crowd.
Julie stood waiting patiently by a lamp-stand while the world bustled
about her. She wore a little hat with a gay pheasant's wing in it, a dark
green travelling dress and neat brown shoes, and brown silk stockings.
Most people looked at her as they passed, including several officers, but
there was a different look in her brown eyes from that usually there, and
they all passed on unhesitatingly.
It seemed to her a good while before Peter came up again, in his wake a
railway Amazon with the trunk on her shoulder and the suit-case in her
hand. "Sorry to keep you, dear," he said. "But there was a huge crush and
next to no porters, if these _are_ porters. It feels rotten to have a
woman carrying one's luggage, but I suppose it can't be helped. Come on.
Aren't you tired? Don't you want tea?"
"I am a little," she said "And I do a bit. Where are we going to get it?
Do they sell teas in London, Peter, or have you taken a leaf out of my
book?"
They laughed at the reminiscence. "Julie," said Peter, "this is my
outfit, and you shall see what you think of it. Give me your ticket, will
you? I want to see you through myself."
She handed him a little purse without a word, and they set off together.
She was indulging in the feeling of surrender as if it were not a victory
she had won, and he was glowing with the sense of acquisition, as if he
had really acquired something.
Julie got into the taxi while Peter settled the luggage, gave directions,
and paid the Amazon. Then he climbed in and pulled the door to, and they
slipped out of the crowded station-yard into the roar of London. Julie
put her hand in his. "Peter," she said, "do tell me where we're going.
I'm dying to know. What arrangements have you made? Is it safe?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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