“As if what mattered?” I asked.
“Why, what you said just now. Don’t interrupt me. I am puzzling out a thought which will lead to—oh! it has gone—don’t speak; it will come back if you keep quiet. There, I’ve nearly caught it!”
“Oh Augusta!” I said, “you mustn’t talk in that way while we are walking in this street.”
I clutched her by the arm.
“Guide me, Dumps; guide me, commonplace Dumps; then I shall be able to think in peace.”
I guided her then very steadily. We walked up Queen’s Road. Queen’s Road is a long street.
“I thought,” I said, “that you lived somewhere near Inverness Terrace, close to the Twopenny Tube.” Augusta pulled up short.
“What have you been doing?” she said.
“What have I been doing?” I answered.
“Why, you’ve led me more than half a mile away from home, and mother will be very much annoyed.”