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It was ten more minutes before she got him out of his rooms and into a taxi.
‘We’ve lost twenty minutes,’ she said, looking at her watch. ‘You’ve lost twenty kisses you might have had——’
‘For God’s sake don’t rag me!’ cried Jocelyn, gripping her by the arm and bundling her into the taxi.
‘But what,’ asked Laura, who had tumbled in a heap on the seat, yet who didn’t mind being thrown in because she knew she deserved worse than that, ‘what else can one do with a creature like you?’
And she told him very seriously, as they heaved along towards Crippenham, that the real mistake had been Sally’s marrying beneath her.
‘Beneath her?’ repeated Jocelyn, staring.
‘Isn’t it apparent?’ said Laura. ‘Angels should only marry other angels, and not descend to entanglements with perfectly ordinary——’
‘No, I’m damned if I’m ordinary,’ thought Jocelyn. ‘And who the devil is she, anyhow?’
‘Bad-tempered,’ continued Laura.
‘Yes, I’m beastly bad-tempered,’ he admitted.
‘Conceited——’
‘I swear I’m not conceited,’ he said.
‘Aren’t you?’ said Laura, turning her head and scrutinising him with bright, mocking eyes.
And then, coming swift and silent as an arrow along the road towards their taxi, she saw her father’s car.
‘Oh, stop!’ she cried, leaping to her feet and thrusting as much of herself as would go through the window. ‘Here’s my father—yes, and Sally. Stop—oh, stop!’ she cried, frantically waving her arms.