"It was good of that fellow to come and warn us. I must be very careful for the future with whom I bet."
XXXVII
On Sunday, as soon as dinner was over, Esther had intended to go to East
Dulwich to see Mrs. Lewis. But as she closed the door behind her, she saw
Sarah coming up the street.
"Ah, I see you're going out."
"It don't matter; won't you come in, if it's only for a minute?"
"No, thank you, I won't keep you. But which way are you going? We might go a little way together."
They walked down Waterloo Place and along Pall Mall. In Trafalgar Square there was a demonstration, and Sarah lingered in the crowd so long that when they arrived at Charing Cross, Esther found that she could not get to Ludgate Hill in time to catch her train, so they went into the Embankment Gardens. It had been raining, and the women wiped the seats with their handkerchiefs before sitting down. There was no fashion to interest them, and the band sounded foolish in the void of the grey London Sunday. Sarah's chatter was equally irrelevant, and Esther wondered how Sarah could talk so much about nothing, and regretted her visit to East Dulwich more and more. Suddenly Bill's name came into the conversation.
"But I thought you didn't see him any more; you promised us you wouldn't."
"I couldn't help it…. It was quite an accident. One day, coming back from church with Annie—that's the new housemaid—he came up and spoke to us."
"What did he say?"