Manchurian Books

There was something
extraordinarily fine about her, something simple and high, that
flickered in and out of her ignorance and commonness and limitations
like the tongue from the mouth of a snake....
One night I was privileged to meet her and bring her home from an
entertainment at the Birkbeck Institute. We came back on the underground
railway and we travelled first-class--that being the highest class
available. We were alone in the carriage, and for the first time I
ventured to put my arm about her.
"You mustn't," she said feebly.
"I love you," I whispered suddenly with my heart beating wildly, drew
her to me, drew all her beauty to me and kissed her cool and unresisting
lips.
"Love me?" she said, struggling away from me, "Don't!" and then, as the
train ran into a station, "You must tell no one.... I don't know.... You
shouldn't have done that...."
Then two other people got in with us and terminated my wooing for a
time.
When we found ourselves alone together, walking towards Battersea, she
had decided to be offended.


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