each other affectionately, and momentarily
blocked the Dover Street Tube exit in doing so. The adjective "old"
was misleading. Their united ages would certainly not have totalled
forty-five.

"Not seen you for simply centuries," continued the young man. "Where are
you off to? Come and chew a bun with me. We're getting a bit unpopular
here--blocking the gangway as it were. Let's get out of it."

The girl assenting, they started walking down Dover Street towards
Piccadilly.

"Now then," said Tommy, "where shall we go?"

The very faint anxiety which underlay his tone did not escape the astute
ears of Miss Prudence Cowley, known to her intimate friends for some
mysterious reason as "Tuppence." She pounced at once.

"Tommy, you're stony!"

"Not a bit of it," declared Tommy unconvincingly. "Rolling in cash."

"You always were a shocking liar," said Tuppence severely, "though you
did once persuade Sister Greenbank that the doctor had ordered you beer
as a tonic, but forgotten to write it on the chart. Do you remember?"

Tommy chuckled.

"I should think I did! Wasn't the old cat in a rage when she found
out? Not that she was a bad sort really, old Mother Greenbank! Good old
hospital--demobbed like everything else, I suppose?"

Tuppence sighed.

"Yes. You too?"

Tommy nodded.

"Two months ago."

"Gratuity?" hinted Tuppence.

"Spent."

"Oh, Tommy!"

"No, old thing, not in riotous dissipation. No such luck! The cost of
living--ordinary plain, or garden living nowadays is, I assure you, if
you do not know----"

"My dear child," interrupted Tuppence, "there is nothing I do NOT know
about the cost of living. Here we are at Lyons', and we will each of us
pay for our own. That's it!" And Tuppence led the way upstairs.

The place was full, and they wandered about looking for a table,
catching odds and ends of conversation as they did so.

"And--do you know, she sat down and CRIED when I told her she couldn't
have the flat after all." "It was simply a BARGAIN, my dear! Just like
the one Mabel Lewis brought from Paris----"

"Funny scraps one does overhear," murmured Tommy. "I passed two Johnnies
in the street to-day talking about some one called Jane Finn. Did you
ever hear such a name?"

But at that moment two elderly ladies rose and collected parcels, and
Tuppence deftly ensconced herself in one of the vacant seats.

Tommy ordered tea and buns. Tuppence ordered tea and buttered toast.

"And mind the tea