Page 115 - of-human-bondage-

Philip answered joyfully.
‘Rather.’
In order to be sure of meeting Rose at the station he took
an earlier train than he usually did, and he waited about
the platform for an hour. When the train came in from Fa-
versham, where he knew Rose had to change, he ran along
it excitedly. But Rose was not there. He got a porter to tell
him when another train was due, and he waited; but again
he was disappointed; and he was cold and hungry, so he
walked, through side-streets and slums, by a short cut to
the school. He found Rose in the study, with his feet on the
chimney-piece, talking eighteen to the dozen with half a
dozen boys who were sitting on whatever there was to sit
on. He shook hands with Philip enthusiastically, but Phil-
ip’s face fell, for he realised that Rose had forgotten all about
their appointment.
‘I say, why are you so late?’ said Rose. ‘I thought you were
never coming.’
‘You were at the station at half-past four,’ said another
boy. ‘I saw you when I came.’
Philip blushed a little. He did not want Rose to know that
he had been such a fool as to wait for him.
‘I had to see about a friend of my people’s,’ he invented
readily. ‘I was asked to see her off.’
But his disappointment made him a little sulky. He sat
in silence, and when spoken to answered in monosyllables.
He was making up his mind to have it out with Rose when
they were alone. But when the others had gone Rose at once
came over and sat on the arm of the chair in which Philip

11 Of Human Bondage