They had reached the Park gate. The young man stopped a hansom and they got in.
"You are extravagant," she said. "We might have taken a 'bus or the Tube. We might even have walked."
The young man reminded himself that he was now a solicitor's clerk. "True," he said. "But it is only a shilling fare. And Saturday afternoon is our holiday, you know."
"I shall insist on paying half the cab and half everything."
"That must be just as you wish. But if you do it will be a disappointment for me. And it is really not a very serious matter, even for me."
She seemed to think this over. Lady Mabel met them in her victoria, and the young man saluted her.
"Very well," said the girl, suddenly. "I won't pay for anything at all."
"Thanks so much," said the young man.
"But all of this," said the girl, much as if she had been speaking to herself, "is not in the least like what I had expected."
At the shop in Bond Street he took her upstairs to a table in a secluded corner.