This
was adventure with a capital letter. There was still something of
romance in the world which his jaded palate had not yet tasted.

"I'm sure you're tired," he said gently, "and probably fed-up. So am
I. I was just wondering what in the world to do with myself when I
heard you crying. It made me feel a sort of kinship with you--it did,
upon my word. If I'd been a woman I dare say I should have been
howling like anything. Will you come along with me and let me give you
some supper? I'm hungry too...."

She shrank back from him with a little gesture of fear.

"Oh no--please let me go!..."

She tried to pass him, but Micky barred the way.

"You can't walk about the streets all night," he said determinedly.
"The cat will hate it anyway, even if you don't mind." There was a
hint of laughter in his voice, though he had never felt more serious
in all his life. "And if you don't want me to take pity on you, you
might at least take pity on me ... please don't think I'm a bounder
trying to annoy you or anything like that ... perhaps I want a friend
just as badly as you do...." He stopped, aghast at his own temerity.

"If you do," she said tremulously, "I am more sorry for you than I can
say."

"I'm glad you said that," Micky answered, "because now you'll come
along and have that supper with me. There's a little cafe quite near
here that I know. If we are both miserable, we can at least be
miserable together."

Something told him that this girl was at the end of her tether; that
she was desperate, and his first casual curiosity concerning her
deepened in the most surprising fashion.

He felt in some inexplicable way that a curtain had been lifted from a
phase of life hitherto hidden from him; as if he were standing on the
threshold of a new world, where women only weep for something real and
tragic, not just butterfly tears of petulance like the women of his
own class.

The girl was silent for a moment; then suddenly she laughed, a hard
little laugh of recklessness.

"Very well," she said. "I suppose I may as well."

Micky was infinitely relieved; somehow he had not really thought that
she would allow him to accompany her.

They walked along for a few steps in silence. Once or twice the cat,
tucked under the girl's arm, gave a faint mieow of protest, and Micky
smiled to himself in the darkness.

It was the cat that seemed to give such a real touch of pathos to the
whole adventure, he thought, and wondered w