Scarcely ten minutes had gone by before he saw her coming down the steps again. She held a bundle under her arm, and George, convinced of her sincerity at last, went to meet her.
“I bet you had a bad ten minutes,” she said, smiling at him. “I hope I haven’t been too long. You’ll find everything there. I duplicated the underclothes. The hat’s the only thing I wasn’t sure about. Does she wear hats?”
George blinked. “No,” he said. “How did you know?”
“I somehow felt she didn’t.” She pressed the bundle into his arms.
George stood gaping at her, a prickly sensation behind his eyes. “I—I don’t know how to thank you. I don’t really.”
“I’ve got to get in now. Good night, and please don’t hold up any more girls. You know, we don’t really like it.”
He watched her go, then he turned and stumbled hack to the taxi. People were kinds he thought. He would never have believed it. Never! To think that a girl like that, so rich, who had everything, should have been so damned decent, especially after the fright he had given her. It was terrific of her! It really was marvellous.
Driving back across the Heath, George had this girl Babs more in his mind than Cora. Cora had never been kind to him. She had always jeered at him. Babs was the only girl who had ever been decent to him except, of course, Gladys; but Gladys didn’t count. It was her job to be decent to everyone. But Babs—why, she could have called the police, she could have trapped him easily enough; but instead, she had given him the impossible. She had done more for him—a complete stranger—than Cora would ever do for him, even though Cora knew he loved her.
He wouldn’t wait for the morning, he decided. He would go into her bedroom and wake her up and lay the clothes on the bed for her to admire. He would stand over her and grin. It was something to grin about, wasn’t it? “You cheap bluffer!” she had called him. Well, this would show her whether he was a bluffer or not.
A sudden stab of desire caught him. She might be so pleased that—well, it was no good thinking along those lines just yet. But she might feel that she could be nice to him. She might be very nice to him After all, few people would have done what he had done. He wouldn’t tell her about Babs. He’d just say he kidnapped a girl and stripped her of her clothes. That’d startle her. That’d show her he had guts!