Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault

Author:Mary Renault [Renault, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4804-3980-1
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-11-21T23:41:00+00:00

CHAPTER XVI

“ARE YOU SURE,” ASKED Helen, pausing in final doubt in front of the Corner House, “that you’ll really be all right?”

“Of course I will. Really.” Elsie spoke with convincing stoutness; if her plans for the rest of the afternoon had involved a traverse of Snowdon instead of central London she would have been hardly more terrified, but equally determined. Through the broad canyon of Oxford Street, London surged past her, full of its mysterious preoccupations, its compound smells fresh in her unaccustomed nose; dust and petrol, passing perfumes of women, green leaves in a drift of wind vanishing swiftly into the sickliness of warm gear-oil and overclothed humanity, a waft of beer from a crawling dray. Helen, her pencil-case and drawing-block under her arm, seemed already in anticipation to have vanished into it, merging as easily into this strange jungle as a bird into its tree, one more neat female figure among the dozens hurrying past.

“The District Railway back,” Helen reminded her, “from Charing Cross to King’s Cross. I’ll meet you under the clock at five. And don’t worry about getting lost. If you do in London, it can’t mean anything more than wasting half an hour. Any bobby will put you right. Or almost anyone else, for the matter. I’ll have to take this bus. See you at five.” She vanished, in what seemed the clap of an eye, into a hot red monster which a traffic jam had slowed down beside them. Elsie was alone, with three hours, London, and the four pounds in her handbag, all to spend. She looked about her. Down the side-street on her left were large, quiet, rich houses, and a humble-looking barrow piled astonishingly with peaches and grapes and roses. Beside her, a shop window was full of complicated corsets, at which a fat woman was wistfully staring. A man in a purple suit and brown boots collided with her as she swayed indeterminately in midstream, said “Pardon me,” and was swallowed up almost before she knew he had been there. A perambulator was bearing down on her. Like a swimmer caught in a current, she began to move along.

Had Peter, she wondered, ever passed over this pavement where her own feet fell? Almost anyone who lived in London must, she supposed, have done so at some time. She tried to imagine him, a yard or two ahead of her, outside this sweetshop window, for instance, where the mechanical chromium arms manipulated an endless rope of nougat. Perhaps he might, in reality, suddenly appear, emerging without warning like the man in the purple suit, and saying “Hullo, Elsie,” while she was confused and all unready; in a hurry, full, like all these other confident people, of concerns about which she knew nothing. The thought made her feel more than ever bewildered and lonely—Peter, herself, her love, her very consciousness, minute as light-motes in the endless powder of the Galaxy. She walked on, trying to look busy and purposeful and like other people, growing more desolate at every step.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.