And as he went he called over his shoulder, "Don't forget Monday."
As if she was likely to forget it!
CHAPTER XXI
And, after all, Monday, that is to say the day at Richmond, never came.
On Monday morning when Violet got up she was seized with a slight dizziness and sickness. It passed off. She declared that earthquakes shouldn't stop her going to Richmond, and dressed herself in defiance of all possible disturbance. Ransome took the Baby over to Wandsworth, to his mother, to be looked after. At ten o'clock he joined Winny and Maudie and Fred Booty at St. Ann's Terrace, where they had arranged that Violet was to meet them. Following on her bicycle, she would be there at ten sharp, when the five would go on to Richmond by the tram that passed Winny's door.
Ransome had no sooner left Granville than Violet slipped out to the chemist's at the corner.
Ten o'clock struck, and the quarter and the half hour, and Violet had not appeared at St. Ann's Terrace.
Ransome proposed that the others should go on without him; he said he thought there must be something wrong, and that he had better go and see what had happened. They argued about it for a while, and finally Maudie and Fred Booty started. Winny refused flatly to go with them. She was convinced that they would meet Violet on the road to Southfields. She must have had a puncture, Winny said.
But they did not meet her.