Two
or three were in evening dress, and one girl who sat at the end of the
table and smoked incessantly wore a shabby coat and skirt and a raffish
billycock hat. Chelsea or the University Schools was stamped on all of
them. There wasn't much that they didn't know, and there was very little
that they believed in--not even themselves. For they were of the very
newest type, and would have scorned to admit to a Purpose or a Faith.
But they could not help being young and rather liking one another, and
the good food and the promise of a riotous evening.
Robert knew their kind. He even knew by sight the side-whiskered young
man who now clapped his hands like an Eastern potentate. He had been of
Robert's year at the University, and had been ploughed twice.
"Wine-ho! Fellow creatures, what is it to be? In honour of the occasion
and to show our contempt of circumstances, shall we say a magnum of
Heidsieck? All in favour wave their paws----"
The girl in the billycock hat blew a great puff of smoke towards him.
"Oh, death and damnation, Howard! Haven't I been explaining to you all
the afternoon that I owe rent for a fortnight to a devil in female form,
and that unless someone buys 'A Sunset over the Surrey Cliffs seen Upside
Down,' Gerty will be on the streets? Make it beer with a dash o'
bitters."
Finally it was Francey who decided. She beckoned, not looking at him,
and Robert with a little obsequious bow, handed her the wine card and
waited at her elbow.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134