“I haven’t much:  a big suit-case, most important because it holds an evening dress—­it’s marked with my initials; a small leather trunk, borrowed, with a big star on it; and my dressing-case, which is here.  And I think they’re behind, but I wouldn’t swear, because we’ve seemed to turn round three times in the course of the journey, but it may have been four!”

Peter chuckled.  She was just the old Julie, but yet with a touch of something more shining in her eyes, and underlying even the simplest words.

“Well, you stand aside just a moment and I’ll go and see,” he said, and he hurried off in the crowd.

Julie stood waiting patiently by a lamp-stand while the world bustled about her.  She wore a little hat with a gay pheasant’s wing in it, a dark green travelling dress and neat brown shoes, and brown silk stockings.  Most people looked at her as they passed, including several officers, but there was a different look in her brown eyes from that usually there, and they all passed on unhesitatingly.

It seemed to her a good while before Peter came up again, in his wake a railway Amazon with the trunk on her shoulder and the suit-case in her hand.  “Sorry to keep you, dear,” he said.  “But there was a huge crush and next to no porters, if these are porters.  It feels rotten to have a woman carrying one’s luggage, but I suppose it can’t be helped.  Come on.  Aren’t you tired?  Don’t you want tea?”

“I am a little,” she said “And I do a bit.  Where are we going to get it?  Do they sell teas in London, Peter, or have you taken a leaf out of my book?”

They laughed at the reminiscence.  “Julie,” said Peter, “this is my outfit, and you shall see what you think of it.  Give me your ticket, will you?  I want to see you through myself.”

She handed him a little purse without a word, and they set off together.  She was indulging in the feeling of surrender as if it were not a victory she had won, and he was glowing with the sense of acquisition, as if he had really acquired something.

Julie got into the taxi while Peter settled the luggage, gave directions, and paid the Amazon.  Then he climbed in and pulled the door to, and they slipped out of the crowded station-yard into the roar of London.  Julie put her hand in his.  “Peter,” she said, “do tell me where we’re going.  I’m dying to know.  What arrangements have you made?  Is it safe?”

He leaned over her, his eyes sparkling.  “A kiss, first, Julie:  no one will see and it doesn’t matter a damn if they do.  That’s the best of London.  My dear, I can hardly believe we’re both here at last, and that I’ve really got you.”  Their lips met.

Julie flung herself back with a laugh.  “Oh, Peter,” she said, “I shall never forget that first taxi.  If you could have seen your own face!  Really it was too comic, but I must say you’ve changed since then.”

“I was a fool and a beast,” he said, more gravely; “I’m only just beginning to realise how much of a fool.  But don’t rub it in, Julie, or not just now.  I’m starting to live at last, and I don’t want to be reminded of the past.”