‘Are you coming round the corner?’

She did not get his meaning. ‘Corner?’ she said. ‘What corner?’

‘The Sun?’ he said. ‘Or whatever it’s called? They open up at six, don’t they?’

She now saw that he was inviting her to go with him to the public-house – the River Sun. She was taken aback, and said ‘Well, I don’t know . . . I was going upstairs to tidy up.’

‘Aw,’ he said. ‘Come on. You can tidy up round there – can’t you?’

‘Well . . .’ she said, and ‘Aw,’ he said. ‘Come on.’ And a moment later she was out in the blackness with him.

He guessed it was ‘kind of a dark night’, and he took her arm in the most natural way as they crossed the road. With equal naturalness he failed to relinquish her arm as they walked along on the other side. He asked her if she worked in London and she said that she did. She was completely bewildered and taken aback. She was too stunned to react to the situation or the man in any way, favourably or unfavourably. She was conscious, however, of a slight feeling of pleasure, pleasure at having the monotony of her evening blown to smithereens in this way, and at the thought of the minor tumult which this would cause in the boarding-house when it got to hear of it – the tumult, in particular, in the breast of Mr. Thwaites, who was no doubt at this moment complacently awaiting her return and booming away in the Lounge. She was also pleasantly conscious of the bigness of the man who held her arm in the dark. Finally she was conscious that the man, without being drunk, had been drinking during the afternoon.

They went into the bright Saloon Lounge of the River Sun and took a seat at a table in a corner near the fire. She asked for a small gin and french, and he went to the bar. He returned with a large gin and french and a large whisky and soda for himself. She now had a chance to look at him. He was big and broad in his uniform, and wore large spectacles. He had a fresh brown complexion, and at moments she thought that he was under forty and at moments she thought that he was over this age. His complexion, like her own, was at the moment glowing, with the cold weather. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, and at moments she thought that this was due to the cold, and at moments she thought that this was due to his drinking alcohol regularly and heavily. He had gorgeous American teeth in a warm, broad American grin. He talked nineteen to the dozen.

Soon enough her heart, in occult collusion with the gin and french inside her, began to warm towards him, and she was aware of relaxing and enjoying herself whole-heartedly.