Suddenly, then, I saw things different, and at that moment came Moxon into the room.
"The 'taxi' for the lady," said he.
CHAPTER IV
Not only has Moxon his ideas about me; he has also his ideas about women.
"They're a strange lot of people," he said once to me, meaning women, but as if they were all huddled together in waiting down in the hall.
"By which you mean?" said I.
"By which I mean, sir, that my sister Amy has thrown off the man she was engaged to and has taken to religion."
That was not telling me much what he meant. I doubt if he really knew himself. In all probability it was that he had come violently to the conclusion that he knew nothing whatever about them, in which case a man will speak knowingly of women in non-committal terms.
In the same diplomatic way, I knew he must be thinking a great deal with every blast of that whistle out in the street, and doubtless in the same diplomatic way, he would express it later.
I returned therefore with a certain amount of expectancy to my room as soon as the "taxi" had driven off and that poor little creature had vanished away into the grey heart of her world in Bloomsbury. There was that which I had slipped into her purse which might pay for the fare and perhaps a hat as well. God knows what hats cost, for I do not. Wherefore, when I put my hand into my pocket, I left it to God to suggest the amount.