Page 454 - of-human-bondage-

LVIII

hilip woke early next morning, and his first thought
Pwas of Mildred. It struck him that he might meet her at
Victoria Station and walk with her to the shop. He shaved
quickly, scrambled into his clothes, and took a bus to the
station. He was there by twenty to eight and watched the
incoming trains. Crowds poured out of them, clerks and
shop-people at that early hour, and thronged up the plat-
form: they hurried along, sometimes in pairs, here and
there a group of girls, but more often alone. They were white,
most of them, ugly in the early morning, and they had an
abstracted look; the younger ones walked lightly, as though
the cement of the platform were pleasant to tread, but the
others went as though impelled by a machine: their faces
were set in an anxious frown.
At last Philip saw Mildred, and he went up to her eager-
ly.
‘Good-morning,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d come and see
how you were after last night.’
She wore an old brown ulster and a sailor hat. It was very
clear that she was not pleased to see him.
‘Oh, I’m all right. I haven’t got much time to waste.’
‘D’you mind if I walk down Victoria Street with you?’
‘I’m none too early. I shall have to walk fast,’ she an-
swered, looking down at Philip’s club-foot.