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Don’t you call that hunting for a needle in a bundle of hay?”
    â€œSounds a bit like it,” said Flossie. A quick shiver ran over her and she edged a little nearer.
    â€œAre you awfully cold?” said Miles.
    â€œNo—I got my coat.” She shivered again, because when she said that, it all came over her. The coat snatched down from its peg. The bolt on the area door—it had pinched her finger, but she hadn’t felt it till afterwards. And then the panic-stricken flight up the steps and down the foggy street. She’d got to have someone to talk to, or she’d be seeing that black hole in the wall again, and the man’s head with the blood running down. She drew in her breath with a shuddering sound, and heard Miles say in a voice of concern,
    â€œI say, what’s the matter? Are you ill?”
    She said, “No—I got my coat.”
    He could hear that her teeth were chattering. Then, between those chattering teeth, she said,
    â€œI got a fright.”
    The man who had groaned had made no sound since then. Miles was vaguely aware of him, slumped down in a heap. He and the girl might have been quite alone. They were alone. The fog shut them in. He could feel her shivering and trembling against him. She sounded very young. He said,
    â€œWhat frightened you?”
    â€œOoh!” said Flossie. “It was awful, Mr Miles—it was, reelly!”
    She didn’t care what Aunt or anyone would say. If she didn’t tell someone, she’d go potty, and even Aunt couldn’t say that he wasn’t behaving like a perfect gentleman. Come to that, she could have done with a bit of an arm round her—it ’ud have been company in the dark and no harm done. She slipped her hand inside the arm she was leaning against and her teeth stopped chattering.
    â€œIt was awful, Mr Miles—it was, reelly! I just run out of the house like I was, in my cap an’ apron, only I took off the cap and put it in my pocket, and if I hadn’t grabbed my coat as I came through the passage, I wouldn’t have nothing round me and I’d have got my death as like as not.”
    â€œWhat frightened you?”
    She really had a pretty voice. The London accent struck pleasantly on his ear. It went with that breathless whispering way she talked.
    â€œWhat frightened you?”
    Flossie settled down to enjoy herself. Holding on to his arm like that made her feel quite safe. Coo! Wouldn’t Ernie be wild if he could see her now? The thought of Ernie’s probable state of mind imparted a pleasant glow. Ernie was all right, but he’d better not start any of that sheikh stuff with her.
    â€œWell, it’s like this,” she said. “I got a girl friend, Ivy Hodge her name is, and she was all fixed up to go to a place—house-parlour with an old invalid lady who doesn’t hardly ever come out of her room. Leastways I s’pose she’s old, but Ivy never seen her, and no more did I.”
    Miles felt a very languid interest in the affairs of Ivy Hodge, but he liked the little whispering Cockney voice at his shoulder. Hard lines on a kid like that to be out all night in this fog.
    He put in an encouraging “Well?”
    â€œWell, it was a bit funny, don’t you think? No one seeing her, I mean. They just rang up the registry in an awful hurry, and they took up her reference on the ’phone, and would she come in to-morrow? And my girl friend said she would. You see, she’d had the worst row ever with her fiongcey. The banns was up and all, but she said to me, ‘I don’t care, dear—if I was half-way through the marriage service and he demeaned himself to speak to me the way he spoke to me yesterday, I’d say no and I’d mean no, same as I’ve said it now. And if he thinks he can come smarming and making it up, he’ll find out where he’s made a mistake, because I’ve just been to the registry and