grew
warmer, he was more alive to its dangers. To take this child into the
very shop frequented by his wife and friends seemed a little mad; but
that same reason which caused them to frequent it--the fact that there
was no other shop of the sort half so handy--was the reason which caused
Hilary to go there now. He had acted on impulse; he knew that if he let
his impulse cool he would not act at all. The bold course was the wise
one; this was why he chose the end door round the corner. Standing aside
for her to go in first, he noticed the girl's brightened eyes and cheeks;
she had never looked so pretty. He glanced hastily round; the department
was barren for their purposes, filled entirely with pyjamas. He felt a
touch on his arm. The little model, rather pink, was looking up at him.

"Mr. Dallison, am I to get more than one set of--underthings?"

"Three-three," muttered Hilary; and suddenly he saw that they were on the
threshold of that sanctuary. "Buy them," he said, "and bring me the
bill."

He waited close beside a man with a pink face, a moustache, and an almost
perfect figure, who was standing very still, dressed from head to foot in
blue-and-white stripes. He seemed the apotheosis of what a man should
be, his face composed in a deathless simper: "Long, long have been the
struggles of man, but civilization has produced me at last. Further than
this it cannot go. Nothing shall make me continue my line. In me the
end is reached. See my back: 'The Amateur. This perfect style, 8s. 11d.
Great reduction.'"

He would not talk to Hilary, and the latter was compelled to watch the
shopmen. It was but half an hour to closing time; the youths were moving
languidly, bickering a little, in the absence of their customers--like
flies on a pane unable to get out into the sun. Two of them came and
asked him what they might serve him with; they were so refined and
pleasant that Hilary was on the point of buying what he did not want.
The reappearance of the little model saved him.

"It's thirty shillings; five and eleven was the cheapest, and stockings,
and I bought some sta---"

Hilary produced the money hastily.

"This is a very dear shop," she said.

When she had paid the bill, and Hilary had taken from her a large
brown-paper parcel, they journeyed on together. He had armoured his face
now in a slightly startled quizzicality, as though, himself detached, he
were watching the adventure from a distance.