But the hansom had turned into the main road and was going _north_. They
were going even further north than Miss Szigmondy's ... up a straight
empty Sunday suburban road between rows of suburban houses with gardens
that tried to look pretty ... an open silly prettiness like suburban
ladies coming up to town for matinées ... if there were artists living
up here it would not be worth while to go and see them....
4
As the afternoon wore on it dawned upon Miriam that if Miss Szigmondy
were to be at the poet's house in evening dress by half past six, they
had seen nearly all they were going to see. There could be no thought of
Chelsea. But she answered with a swift negative when Miss Szigmondy
enquired as they were shown into their hansom outside their eighth large
Hampstead house whether she were tired. Her unsatisfied consciousness
ran ahead, waiting; just beyond, round the next corner was something
that would relieve the oppression. "I just want to rgun in and see that
poor boy Gilbert Haze." Then it was over and she must go on enduring
whilst Miss Szigmondy paid a call; unable to get free because she was
being paid for and could not afford to go back alone. They drove for
some distance, the large houses disappeared, they were in amongst little
drab roadways like those round about Mornington Road. Perhaps if she
improvised an engagement she could find her way to Regent's Park and get
back. But they had come so far. They must be on the outskirts of N.W.,
perhaps even in N. They pulled up before a small drab villa. The sun had
gone behind the clouds, the short street was desolate. No touch of life
or colour anywhere, hardly a sign of spring in the small parched
shrub-filled front gardens, uniformly enclosed by dusty railings. She
dreaded her wait alone in the cab with her finery and her empty
afternoon while Miss Szigmondy visited her sick friend.
"Come along," said Miss Szigmondy from the little garden path "poor
cgeature you _do_ look tired." Miriam got angrily out of the cab. Whose
fault was it that she was tired? Why did Miss Szigmondy go to these
things? She had not cared and was not disappointed at not caring. She
was just the same as when she had started out.