It was in the Bystander.’
Oh, that was how he got all his information.
Poor sweet.
He read about grand people in the papers and now and then, at a restaurant or a theatre, saw them in the flesh.
Of course it was a thrill for him.
Romance.
If he only knew how dull they were really!
This innocent passion for the persons whose photographs appear in the illustrated papers made him seem incredibly naive, and she looked at him with tender eyes.
‘Have you ever taken an actress out to supper before?’
He blushed scarlet.
‘Never.’
She hated to let him pay the bill, she had an inkling that it was costing pretty well his week’s salary, but she knew it would hurt his pride if she offered to pay it herself.
She asked casually what the time was and instinctively he looked at his wrist.
‘I forgot to put on my watch.’
She gave him a searching look.
‘Have you pawned it?’
He reddened again.
‘No.
I dressed in rather a hurry tonight.’
She only had to look at his tie to know that he had done no such thing.
He was lying to her.
She knew that he had pawned his watch in order to take her out to supper.
A lump came into her throat.
She could have taken him in her arms then and there and kissed his blue eyes.
She adored him.
‘Let’s go,’ she said.
They drove back to his bed-sitting room in Tavistock Square.
14.
NEXT day Julia went to Cartier’s and bought a watch to send to Tom Fennell instead of the one he had pawned, and two or three weeks later, discovering that it was his birthday, she sent him a gold cigarette-case.
‘D’you know, that’s the one thing I’ve wanted all my life.’
She wondered if there were tears in his eyes.
He kissed her passionately.
Then, on one excuse and another, she sent him pearl studs and sleeve-links and waistcoat buttons.
It thrilled her to make him presents.
‘It’s so awful that I can’t give you anything in return,’ he said.
‘Give me the watch you pawned to stand me a supper.’
It was a little gold watch that could not have cost more than ten pounds, but it amused her to wear it now and then.
It was not till after that night when they had first supped together that Julia confessed to herself that she had fallen in love with Tom.
It came to her as a shock.
But she was exhilarated.
‘I who thought I could never be in love again.
Of course it can’t last.
But why shouldn’t I get what fun out of it I can?’
She decided that he must come again to Stanhope Place.
It was not long before an opportunity presented itself.
‘You know that young accountant of yours,’ she said to Michael.
‘Tom Fennell’s his name.
I met him out at supper the other night and I’ve asked him to dinner next Sunday.
We want an extra man.’
‘Oh, d’you think he’ll fit in?’