‘I am so glad you were able to come, dearest. How you do brighten up the old City!’
‘Do I? I felt quite lonely until you came. Nothing but droves of men—and all staring.’
‘It’s your dress.’
‘Oh, thank you, sir!’
‘Entirely that pretty brown—’
‘Brown! Fawn colour.’
‘Well, that’s brown. Anyhow, it looks charming. And so do you—by Jove you do, Maude! Come this way!’
‘Where are we going?’
‘By underground. Here we are.—Two second singles, Mark Lane, please!—No, that’s for the west-end trains. Down here! Next train, the man says.’
They were in the mephitic cellar, with the two long wooden platforms where the subterranean trains land or load their freights. A strangling gas tickled their throats and set them coughing. It was all dank and dark and gloomy. But little youth and love care for that! They were bubbling over with the happiness of this abnormal meeting. Both talked together in their delight, and Maude patted Frank’s sleeve with every remark. They could even illuminate all that was around them, by the beauty and brightness of their own love. It went the length of open praise for their abominable surroundings.