"Yes, you can," he said. "You cut out from this afternoon, just before 4.58 it was when I said that to you and you consented . . . I heard the Horse Guards clock. . . . To now. . . . Cut it out; and join time up. . . . It can be done. . . . You know they do it surgically; for some illness; cut out a great length of the bowel and join the tube up. . . . For colitis, I think. . . ."
She said:
"But I wouldn't cut it out. . . . It was the first spoken sign."
He said:
"No it wasn't. . . . From the very beginning . . . with every word. . . ."
She exclaimed:
"You felt that. . . . Too! . . . We've been pushed, as in a carpenter's vice. . . . We couldn't have got away. . . ."
He said: "By God! That's it. . . ."
He suddenly saw a weeping willow in St. James's Park; 4.59! He had just said: "Will you be my mistress to-night?" She had gone away, half left her hands to her face. . . . A small fountain; half left. That could be trusted to keep on for ever. . . .
Along the lake side, sauntering, swinging his crooked stick, his incredibly shiny top-hat perched sideways, his claw-hammer coat tails, very long, flapping out behind, in dusty sunlight, his magpie pince-nez gleaming, had come, naturally, Mr. Ruggles. He had looked at the girl; then down at Tietjens, sprawled on his bench. He had just touched the brim of his shiny hat. He said: