We started back from one another with flushed faces and bright and burning eyes.
"We can't talk here," I whispered with a confident intimacy. "Where do you go at five?"
"Along the Embankment to Charing Cross," she answered as intimately. "None of the others go that way. . . ."
"About half-past five?"
"Yes, half-past five. . . ."
The door from the shop opened, and she sat down very quickly.
"I'm glad," I said in a commonplace voice, "that these new typewriters are all right."
I went into the inner office and routed out the pay-sheet in order to find her name—Effie Rink. And I did no work at all that afternoon. I fretted about that dingy little den like a beast in a cage.
When presently I went out, Effie was working with an extraordinary appearance of calm—and there was no look for me at all. . . .
We met and had our talk that evening, a talk in whispers when there was none to overhear; we came to an understanding. It was strangely unlike any dream of romance I had ever entertained.
§7
I came back after a week's absence to my home again—a changed man. I had lived out my first rush of passion for Effie, had come to a contemplation of my position. I had gauged Effie's place in the scheme of things, and parted from her for a time. She was back in her place at Raggett Street after a temporary
