toria struggled
through the wedged crowd. Here and there boys and girls with flushed
faces, who enjoyed being squashed. She could see crowds of jolly women
picking from the counters things useful and things pretty; upon signal
discoveries loudly proclaimed followed continual exclamations that they
would not do. Family parties, excited and talkative, left her unmoved.
That world, that of the rich and the free, would ultimately be hers; her
past, that of the worn men and women ministering behind the counter to
the whims of her future world, was dead.

She only had to buy a few Christmas presents. There was one for Betty,
one for Cairns, and two for the servants. In the clothing department she
selected a pretty blue merino dressing-gown and a long purple sweater
for Betty. The measurements were much the same as hers, if a little
slighter; besides such garments need not fit. She went downstairs and
disposed of the Major by means of a small gold cigarette case with a
leather cover. No doubt he had a dozen, but what could she give a man?

The Stores buzzed round her like a parliament of bees. Now and then
people shouldered past her, a woman trod on her foot and neglected to
apologise; parcels too, inconveniently carried, struck her as she
passed. She felt the joy of the lost; for none looked at her, save now
and then a man drowned in the sea of women. The atmosphere was stuffy,
however, and time was precious as she had put off buying presents until
so late. Followed by a porter with her parcels she left the Stores,
experiencing the pleasure of credit on an overdrawn deposit order
account. The man piled the goods in a cab, and in a few minutes she had
transferred Betty's presents to a carrier's office, with instructions
to send them off at eight o'clock by a messenger who was to wait at the
door until the addressee returned. This was not unnecessary foresight,
for Betty would not be back until nine. With the Major's cigarette case
in her white muff, Victoria then drove to Bond Street, there to snatch a
cup of tea. On the way she stopped the cab to buy a lace blouse for Mary
and an umbrella for Charlotte, having forgotten them in her hurry. She
decided to have tea at Miss Fortesque's, for Miss Fortesque's is one of
those tearooms where ladies serve ladies, and the newest fashions come.
It is the right place to be seen in at five o'clock. At the door a small
boy in an Eton jacket and collar solemnly salutes with a shiny topper.