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self now I don’t know what I shall do.’
‘All right, I don’t mind,’ he said, ‘but we shall have to do
it on the cheap, I haven’t got money to throw away these
days.’
She sat down and put her shoes on, then changed her
skirt and put on a hat; and they walked out together till they
found a restaurant in the Tottenham Court Road. Philip
had got out of the habit of eating at those hours, and Mil-
dred’s throat was so sore that she could not swallow. They
had a little cold ham and Philip drank a glass of beer. They
sat opposite one another, as they had so often sat before; he
wondered if she remembered; they had nothing to say to
one another and would have sat in silence if Philip had not
forced himself to talk. In the bright light of the restaurant,
with its vulgar looking-glasses that reflected in an endless
series, she looked old and haggard. Philip was anxious to
know about the child, but he had not the courage to ask. At
last she said:
‘You know baby died last summer.’
‘Oh!’ he said.
‘You might say you’re sorry.’
‘I’m not,’ he answered, ‘I’m very glad.’
She glanced at him and, understanding what he meant,
looked away
‘You were rare stuck on it at one time, weren’t you? I al-
ways thought it funny like how you could see so much in
another man’s child.’
When they had finished eating they called at the chem-
ist’s for the medicine Philip had ordered, and going back

Of Human Bondage