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her, but she took no notice; he called her again; then, grow-
ing angry, for he was impatient, he rapped the table loudly
with his stick. She approached sulkily.
‘How d’you do?’ he said.
‘You seem to be in a great hurry.’
She looked down at him with the insolent manner which
he knew so well.
‘I say, what’s the matter with you?’ he asked.
‘If you’ll kindly give your order I’ll get what you want. I
can’t stand talking all night.’
‘Tea and toasted bun, please,’ Philip answered briefly.
He was furious with her. He had The Star with him and
read it elaborately when she brought the tea.
‘If you’ll give me my bill now I needn’t trouble you again,’
he said icily.
She wrote out the slip, placed it on the table, and went
back to the German. Soon she was talking to him with an-
imation. He was a man of middle height, with the round
head of his nation and a sallow face; his moustache was
large and bristling; he had on a tail-coat and gray trousers,
and he wore a massive gold watch-chain. Philip thought
the other girls looked from him to the pair at the table and
exchanged significant glances. He felt certain they were
laughing at him, and his blood boiled. He detested Mildred
now with all his heart. He knew that the best thing he could
do was to cease coming to the tea-shop, but he could not
bear to think that he had been worsted in the affair, and he
devised a plan to show her that he despised her. Next day he
sat down at another table and ordered his tea from another

Of Human Bondage