“I don’t like to see a lady smoking,” she said.

She hesitated a moment and then spoke.

“Were you surprised, my asking you to take me out and give me a bit of dinner tonight?”

“I was delighted.”

“I’ve got something to say to you, Philip.”

He looked at her quickly, his heart sank, but he had trained himself well.

“Well, fire away,” he said, smiling.

“You’re not going to be silly about it, are you?  The fact is I’m going to get married.”

“Are you?” said Philip.

He could think of nothing else to say.  He had considered the possibility often and had imagined to himself what he would do and say.  He had suffered agonies when he thought of the despair he would suffer, he had thought of suicide, of the mad passion of anger that would seize him; but perhaps he had too completely anticipated the emotion he would experience, so that now he felt merely exhausted.  He felt as one does in a serious illness when the vitality is so low that one is indifferent to the issue and wants only to be left alone.

“You see, I’m getting on,” she said.  “I’m twenty-four and it’s time I settled down.”

He was silent.  He looked at the patronne sitting behind the counter, and his eye dwelt on a red feather one of the diners wore in her hat.  Mildred was nettled.

“You might congratulate me,” she said.

“I might, mightn’t I?  I can hardly believe it’s true.  I’ve dreamt it so often.  It rather tickles me that I should have been so jolly glad that you asked me to take you out to dinner.  Whom are you going to marry?”

“Miller,” she answered, with a slight blush.

“Miller?” cried Philip, astounded.  “But you’ve not seen him for months.”

“He came in to lunch one day last week and asked me then.  He’s earning very good money.  He makes seven pounds a week now and he’s got prospects.”

Philip was silent again.  He remembered that she had always liked Miller; he amused her; there was in his foreign birth an exotic charm which she felt unconsciously.

“I suppose it was inevitable,” he said at last.  “You were bound to accept the highest bidder.  When are you going to marry?”

“On Saturday next.  I have given notice.”

Philip felt a sudden pang.

“As soon as that?”

“We’re going to be married at a registry office.  Emil prefers it.”

Philip felt dreadfully tired.  He wanted to get away from her.  He thought he would go straight to bed.  He called for the bill.

“I’ll put you in a cab and send you down to Victoria.  I daresay you won’t have to wait long for a train.”

“Won’t you come with me?”

“I think I’d rather not if you don’t mind.”

“It’s just as you please,” she answered haughtily.  “I suppose I shall see you at tea-time tomorrow?”

“No, I think we’d better make a full stop now.  I don’t see why I should go on making myself unhappy.  I’ve paid the cab.”