Page 479 - of-human-bondage-

LXI

e saw her then every day. He began going to lunch at
Hthe shop, but Mildred stopped him: she said it made
the girls talk; so he had to content himself with tea; but he
always waited about to walk with her to the station; and
once or twice a week they dined together. He gave her lit-
tle presents, a gold bangle, gloves, handkerchiefs, and the
like. He was spending more than he could afford, but he
could not help it: it was only when he gave her anything
that she showed any affection. She knew the price of every-
thing, and her gratitude was in exact proportion with the
value of his gift. He did not care. He was too happy when
she volunteered to kiss him to mind by what means he got
her demonstrativeness. He discovered that she found Sun-
days at home tedious, so he went down to Herne Hill in the
morning, met her at the end of the road, and went to church
with her.
‘I always like to go to church once,’ she said. ‘it looks well,
doesn’t it?’
Then she went back to dinner, he got a scrappy meal at a
hotel, and in the afternoon they took a walk in Brockwell
Park. They had nothing much to say to one another, and
Philip, desperately afraid she was bored (she was very eas-
ily bored), racked his brain for topics of conversation. He
realised that these walks amused neither of them, but he

Of Human Bondage