Mavis could hardly believe her good fortune; she read and re-read the letter; she gratefully scanned the writing on the cheque.  The other letter attracted her attention, which proved to be from Miss Meakin.  This told her that, if Mavis could play the piano and wanted temporary work, she could get this by at once applying at “Poulter’s” Dancing Academy in Devonport Road, Shepherd’s Bush, which Miss Meakin attended; it also said that the writer would be at the academy soon after nine, when she would tell Mavis how she had found her address.  Mavis put on her hat and cloak with a light heart.  The fact of escaping from the debasing drudgery of “Dawes’,” of being the possessor of a cheque for L2. 12S., the prospect of securing work, if only of a temporary nature, made her forget her loneliness and her previous struggles to wrest a pittance from a world indifferent to her needs.  After all, there was One who cared:  the contents of the two letters which she had just received proved that; the cheque and promise of employment were in the nature of compensation for the hurt to her pride which she had suffered yesterday at Orgles’s hands.  She thought her sudden good fortune justified a trifling extravagance; she had no fancy for Mrs Bilkins’s smoked tea, so she turned into the first teashop she came to, where she revelled in scrambled eggs, strong tea, bread, butter, and jam.  She ate these unaccustomed delicacies slowly, deliberately, hugely enjoying the savour of each mouthful.  She then walked in the direction of Shepherd’s Bush.

The garish vulgarity of the Goldhawk Road, along which a procession of electric trams rushed and whizzed, took away her breath.  Devonport Road, in which she was to find the academy, was such a quiet, retiring little turning that Mavis could hardly believe it joined a noisy thoroughfare like the Goldhawk Road.  “Poulter’s” Dancing Academy took some finding; she had no number to guide her, so she asked the two or three people she met if they could direct her to this institution, but not one of them appeared to know anything about it.  She walked along the road, keeping a sharp look-out on either side for door plate or lamp, which she believed was commonly the out-ward and visible sign of the establishment she sought.  A semicircle of brightly illuminated coloured glass, placed above an entrance gate, attracted her, but nearer inspection proved this to be an advertisement of “painless dentistry.”

Further down the road, a gaily coloured lamp caught her eye, the lettering on which read “Gellybrand’s Select Dancing Academy.  Terms to suit all pockets.  Inquire within.”  Mavis was certain that the name of which she was in search was none other than Poulter:  she looked about her and wondered if it were possible for such a down-at-heel neighbourhood to support more than one dancing academy.  The glow of a light in an open doorway on the other side of the way next attracted her.  She crossed, to find this light came from a lamp which was held aloft by a draped female statue standing just inside the door:  beyond the statue was another door, the upper part of which was of glass, the lower of wood.  Written upon the glass in staring gilt letters was the name “Poulter’s.”