Volume Iii Part 21 (1/2)

YOUNG MAN. The wine, quick.

ARNAUD. At once, Sare.

YOUNG MAN. [Abruptly] Don't you ever go racing, then?

CLARE. No.

[ARNAUD pours out champagne]

YOUNG MAN. I remember awfully well my first day. It was pretty thick--lost every blessed bob, and my watch and chain, playin' three cards on the way home.

CLARE. Everything has a beginning, hasn't it?

[She drinks. The YOUNG MAN stares at her]

YOUNG MAN. [Floundering in these waters deeper than he had bargained for] I say--about things having beginnings--did you mean anything?

[CLARE nods]

YOUNG MAN. What! D'you mean it's really the first----?

CLARE nods. The champagne has flicked her courage.

YOUNG MAN. By George! [He leans back] I've often wondered.

ARNAUD. [Again filling the gla.s.ses] Monsieur finds----

YOUNG MAN. [Abruptly] It's all right.

He drains his gla.s.s, then sits bolt upright. Chivalry and the camaraderie of cla.s.s have begun to stir in him.

YOUNG MAN. Of course I can see that you're not--I mean, that you're a--a lady. [CLARE smiles] And I say, you know--if you have to-- because you're in a hole--I should feel a cad. Let me lend you----?

CLARE. [Holding up her gla.s.s] 'Le vin est tire, il faut le boire'!

She drinks. The French words, which he does not too well understand, completing his conviction that she is a lady, he remains quite silent, frowning. As CLARE held up her gla.s.s, two gentlemen have entered. The first is blond, of good height and a comely insolence. His crisp, fair hair, and fair brushed-up moustache are just going grey; an eyegla.s.s is fixed in one of two eyes that lord it over every woman they see; his face is broad, and coloured with air and wine. His companion is a tall, thin, dark bird of the night, with sly, roving eyes, and hollow cheeks. They stand looking round, then pa.s.s into the further room; but in pa.s.sing, they have stared unreservedly at CLARE.

YOUNG MAN. [Seeing her wince] Look here! I'm afraid you must feel me rather a brute, you know.

CLARE. No, I don't; really.

YOUNG MAN. Are you absolute stoney? [CLARE nods] But [Looking at her frock and cloak] you're so awfully well----

CLARE. I had the sense to keep them.

YOUNG MAN. [More and more disturbed] I say, you know--I wish you'd let me lend you something. I had quite a good day down there.

CLARE. [Again tracing her pattern on the cloth--then looking up at him full] I can't take, for nothing.

YOUNG MAN. By Jove! I don't know-really, I don't--this makes me feel pretty rotten. I mean, it's your being a lady.