Philip could not bear to see her cry. He was tortured by the horror of her position.
“Poor child,” he whispered. “Poor child.”
He was deeply moved. Suddenly he had an inspiration. It filled him with a perfect ecstasy of happiness.
“Look here, if you want to get away from it, I’ve got an idea. I’m frightfully hard up just now, I’ve got to be as economical as I can; but I’ve got a sort of little flat now in Kennington and I’ve got a spare room. If you like you and the baby can come and live there. I pay a woman three and sixpence a week to keep the place clean and to do a little cooking for me. You could do that and your food wouldn’t come to much more than the money I should save on her. It doesn’t cost any more to feed two than one, and I don’t suppose the baby eats much.”
She stopped crying and looked at him.
“D’you mean to say that you could take me back after all that’s happened?”
Philip flushed a little in embarrassment at what he had to say.
“I don’t want you to mistake me. I’m just giving you a room which doesn’t cost me anything and your food. I don’t expect anything more from you than that you should do exactly the same as the woman I have in does. Except for that I don’t want anything from you at all. I daresay you can cook well enough for that.”
She sprang to her feet and was about to come towards him.
“You are good to me, Philip.”