Eric composed himself as comfortably as possible in a room where everything jarred upon him. She ought not to have been living there by herself, she was lonely, uncomfortable and probably ill-fed; she ought not to allow a man to come and see her, she ought not to dream of drinking a brandy and soda, she ought not to have brandy or cigars in the house, she ought not to know that she did not mind inhaling cigar-smoke in her sleep. The incident of the photograph recurred to his mind, and he wondered whether he was being offered refreshment which she had provided for Gaymer... and whether she had dropped the photograph behind the piano because she was ashamed of him... or whether they had quarrelled, whether it was Gaymer who had taken her to the theatre and abandoned her....
“I haven’t seen you since that night at the Carstairs’,” she began. “You remember?”
“When I gave you good advice. Yes.”
“Well, I tried to follow it. I’m not altogether a fool and, thinking it over, I thought I saw what you meant. After the dance Johnnie asked me to go to another... It was very hard to do, but I tried to let him see that, though it was all right, of course... I invited him to come and dine with us. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“I thought it was better, certainly. Though, why you think my advice—”
“Because you know about things, you’re clever, you’ve met everybody, you can understand people and write about them. Father’s in such a rut... Well, Johnnie came. That was when I wanted you to meet him. He wasn’t much of a success, I’m afraid.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, I don’t know! He argued... and father always expects an enormous lot of deference from boys. Father said afterwards that Johnnie had drunk much too much for a young man and had become very impertinent. After that, of course, he wasn’t invited again, and mother kept nagging and trying to make me give up my job in his office. We had an awful row one day, just because I dined with Johnnie and came back rather late after the theatre. Father said I wasn’t to go out with him and that, as long as I lived at home, he expected me to obey him. I decided that I couldn’t live at home any longer. Johnnie found me these rooms....”
She coughed and took a sip of her soda-water.
“You consulted him?”