Page 448 - of-human-bondage-

Eastbourne with a man for the week-end now and again.
One of the girls has a married sister who goes there with
her husband, and she’s seen her. She was staying at the same
boarding-house, and she ‘ad a wedding-ring on, and I know
for one she’s not married.’
Philip filled her glass, hoping that champagne would
make her more affable; he was anxious that his little jaunt
should be a success. He noticed that she held her knife as
though it were a pen-holder, and when she drank protruded
her little finger. He started several topics of conversation, but
he could get little out of her, and he remembered with ir-
ritation that he had seen her talking nineteen to the dozen
and laughing with the German. They finished dinner and
went to the play. Philip was a very cultured young man, and
he looked upon musical comedy with scorn. He thought the
jokes vulgar and the melodies obvious; it seemed to him that
they did these things much better in France; but Mildred
enjoyed herself thoroughly; she laughed till her sides ached,
looking at Philip now and then when something tickled her
to exchange a glance of pleasure; and she applauded raptur-
ously.
‘This is the seventh time I’ve been,’ she said, after the first
act, ‘and I don’t mind if I come seven times more.’
She was much interested in the women who surrounded
them in the stalls. She pointed out to Philip those who were
painted and those who wore false hair.
‘It is horrible, these West-end people,’ she said. ‘I don’t
know how they can do it.’ She put her hand to her hair.
‘Mine’s all my own, every bit of it.’