Uncle Chris found Freddie in one of the upper boxes, talking to Nelly Bryant. Dancing was going on down on the stage, but Freddie, though normally a young man who shook a skilful shoe, was in no mood for dancing tonight. The return to the scenes of his former triumphs and the meeting with the companions of happier days, severed from him by a two-weeks’ notice, had affected Freddie powerfully. Eyeing the happy throng below, he experienced the emotions of that Peri who, in the poem, “at the gate of Eden stood disconsolate.”
Excusing himself from Nelly and following Uncle Chris into the passage-way outside the box, he heard the other’s news listlessly. It came as no shock to Freddie. He had never thought Mr Pilkington anything to write home about, and had never supposed that Jill would accept him. He said as much. Sorry for the chap in a way, and all that, but had never imagined for an instant that he would click.
“Where is Underhill?” asked Uncle Chris, agitated.
“Derek? Oh, he isn’t here yet.”
“But why isn’t he here? I understood that you were bringing him with you.”
“That was the scheme, but it seems he had promised some people he met on the boat to go to a theatre and have a bit of supper with them afterwards. I only heard about it when I got back this morning.”
“Good God, boy! Didn’t you tell him that Jill would be here tonight?”
“Oh, rather. And he’s coming on directly he can get away from these people. Forget their name, but they’re influential coves who can do him a bit of good and all that sort of thing. The man—the head of the gang, you know—is something connected with the Cabinet or the Prime Minister or something. You’d know his name in a minute if I told you—always seeing it in the papers—they have pictures of him in Punch a lot—but I’m rotten at names. Derek did tell me, but it’s slipped the old bean. Well, he had to leg it with these people, but he’s coming on later. Ought to be here any moment now.”
Uncle Chris plucked at his mustache gloomily. Freddie’s detachment depressed him. He had looked for more animation and a greater sense of the importance of the issue.
“Well, pip-pip for the present,” said Freddie, moving toward the box. “Have to be getting back. See you later.”