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XCII

he following day was Tuesday. Philip as usual hurried
Tthrough his breakfast and dashed off to get to his lec-
ture at nine. He had only time to exchange a few words with
Mildred. When he came back in the evening he found her
seated at the window, darning his socks.
‘I say, you are industrious,’ he smiled. ‘What have you
been doing with yourself all day?’
‘Oh, I gave the place a good cleaning and then I took baby
out for a little.’
She was wearing an old black dress, the same as she had
worn as uniform when she served in the tea-shop; it was
shabby, but she looked better in it than in the silk of the day
before. The baby was sitting on the floor. She looked up at
Philip with large, mysterious eyes and broke into a laugh
when he sat down beside her and began playing with her
bare toes. The afternoon sun came into the room and shed
a mellow light.
‘It’s rather jolly to come back and find someone about the
place. A woman and a baby make very good decoration in
a room.’
He had gone to the hospital dispensary and got a bottle
of Blaud’s Pills, He gave them to Mildred and told her she
must take them after each meal. It was a remedy she was
used to, for she had taken it off and on ever since she was

0 Of Human Bondage