"It would be ridiculous, Daddy; you don't know."

Grievously upset and bewildered, Pierson moved away from her, and said:

"You look dreadfully tired. Would you like a hot bath, and your dinner
in bed?"

"I'd like some tea; that's all." And she went out.

When he had seen that the tea had gone up to her, he too went out; and,
moved by a longing for woman's help, took a cab to Leila's flat.

III

On leaving the concert Leila and Jimmy Fort had secured a taxi; a
vehicle which, at night, in wartime, has certain advantages for those
who desire to become better acquainted. Vibration, sufficient noise,
darkness, are guaranteed; and all that is lacking for the furtherance
of emotion is the scent of honeysuckle and roses, or even of the white
flowering creeper which on the stoep at High Constantia had smelled so
much sweeter than petrol.

When Leila found herself with Fort in that loneliness to which she had
been looking forward, she was overcome by an access of nervous silence.
She had been passing through a strange time for weeks past. Every night
she examined her sensations without quite understanding them as yet.
When a woman comes to her age, the world-force is liable to take
possession, saying:

"You were young, you were beautiful, you still have beauty, you are not,
cannot be, old. Cling to youth, cling to beauty; take all you can get,
before your face gets lines and your hair grey; it is impossible that
you have been loved for the last time."

To see Jimmy Fort at the concert, talking to Noel, had brought this
emotion to a head. She was not of a grudging nature, and could genuinely
admire Noel, but the idea that Jimmy Fort might also admire disturbed
her greatly. He must not; it was not fair; he was too old--besides, the
girl had her boy; and she had taken care that he should know it. So,
leaning towards him, while a bare-shouldered young lady sang, she had
whispered:

"Penny?"

And he had whispered back:

"Tell you afterwards."

That had comforted her. She would make him take her home. It was time
she showed her heart.

And now, in the cab, resolved to make her feelings known, in sudden
shyness she found it very difficult. Love, to which for quite three
years she had been a stranger, was come to life within her. The
knowledge was at once so sweet, and so disturbing, that she sat with
face averted, unable to turn the precious minutes to account. They
arrived at the flat without having done