The conversation might at this point have taken a more useful turn if Christine had not felt bound to hold herself up against the other’s high tone of indifference to expenditure.  The Russian, in demanding “tranquillity,” had admitted that she regularly practised the profession—­or, as English girls strangely called it, “the business”—­and Christine could have followed her lead into the region of gossiping and intimate realism where detailed confidences are enlighteningly exchanged; but the tone about money was a challenge.

“I should have been enchanted to be of service to you,” said Christine.  “But I know nothing.  I go out less and less.  As for this notice, I smile at it.  I have a friend upon whom I can count for everything.  I have only to tell him, and he will put me among my own furniture at once.  He has indeed already suggested it.  So that, je m’en fiche.”

“I also!” said the Russian.  “My new friend—­he is a colonel, sent from Dublin to London—­has insisted upon putting me among my own furniture.  But I have refused so far—­because one likes to know more of a gentleman—­does not one?—­before ...”

“Truly!” murmured Christine.

“And there is always Paris,” said the Russian.

“But I thought you were from Petrograd.”

“Yes.  But I know Paris well.  Ah!  There is only Paris!  Paris is a second home to me.”

“Can one get a passport easily for Paris?...  I mean, supposing the air-raids grew too dangerous again.”

“Why not, madame?  If one has one’s papers.  To get a passport from Paris to London, that would be another thing, I admit....  I see that you play,” the Russian added, rising, with a gesture towards the piano.  “I have heard you play.  You play with true taste.  I know, for when a girl I played much.”

“You flatter me.”

“Not at all.  I think your friend plays too.”

“Ah!” said Christine.  “He!...  It is an artist, that one.”

They turned over the music, exchanged views about waltzes, became enthusiastic, laughed, and parted amid manifestations of good breeding and goodwill.  As soon as Christine was alone, she sat down and wept.  She could not longer contain her distress.  Paris gleamed before her.  But no!  It was a false gleam.  She could not make a new start in Paris during the war.  The adventure would be too perilous; the adventure might end in a licensed house.  And yet in London—­what was there in London but, ultimately, the pavement?  And the pavement meant complications with the police, with prowlers, with other women; it meant all the scourges of the profession, including probably alcoholism.  It meant prostitution, to which she had never sunk!

She wished she had been killed outright in the air-raid.  She had an idea of going to the Oratory the next morning, and perhaps choosing a new Virgin and soliciting favour of the image thereof.  She sobbed, and, sobbing, suddenly jumped up and ran to the telephone.  And even as she gave Gilbert’s number, she broke it in the middle with a sob.  After all, there was Gilbert.