I'm glad I came up,"
said Mrs. Phillips. "I get a bit down in the mouth sometimes when 'e
goes off into one of 'is brown studies, and I don't seem to know what
'e's thinking about. But it don't last long. I was always one of the
light-'earted ones."
They discussed life on two thousand a year; the problems it would
present; and Mrs. Phillips became more cheerful. Joan laid herself out
to be friendly. She hoped to establish an influence over Mrs. Phillips
that should be for the poor lady's good; and, as she felt instinctively,
for poor Phillips's also. It was not an unpleasing face. Underneath the
paint, it was kind and womanly. Joan was sure he would like it better
clean. A few months' attention to diet would make a decent figure of her
and improve her wind. Joan watched her spreading the butter a quarter of
an inch thick upon her toast and restrained with difficulty the impulse
to take it away from her. And her clothes! Joan had seen guys carried
through the streets on the fifth of November that were less obtrusive.
She remembered, as she was taking her leave, what she had come for: which
was to invite Joan to dinner on the following Friday.
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