Love in Our Time Read Online Free PDF

multiple stores for sixpence.
    â€œSorry if I’m late,” he said.
    Before they had sat down the front-door bell rang again. It was Rex and his wife this time. For a moment Gerald did not recognise the girl; under Rex’s tuition she was very different from the plain, quiet girl from Coventry whom he had met six months before. She came prancing into the house on a pair of four-inch heels. Over one shoulder was slung a silver fox fur and in her hand she carried a small, rectangular handbag with her initials on it studded in brilliants. There was no doubt about it that Rex had made her very much the lady. When she slipped out of her coat Gerald saw with disapproval that she was wearing a low, sleevelessdress of black velvet. It was the sort of dress that a woman spy might have worn at a diplomat’s dinnerparty. After what Rex had said about not dressing it seemed the last straw.
    The rest of the party had arrived, and they had all moved into the dining-room by the time Tony got there. They heard his arrival long before they saw him. The pulsating exhaust of the emeritus racing car could be heard throbbing up and down Boleyn Avenue as he searched for the house. Then it stopped, and everyone in the room had the warm, gratifying feeling of knowing that a man who owned a Bentley was in process of arriving.
    As Gerald opened the door he saw that Tony had brought someone—a girl with him. She was standing in the shadow, a swathed, mysterious figure with a handkerchief over her hair.
    â€œYou don’t mind, do you, old man,” Tony began. “I’ve brought an old friend of yours along?”
    He stepped to one side as he said it and the light fell across his companion’s face. It was Celia.
    Gerald said nothing for a moment. He just stood there gaping. From the way he looked at her she might have been the first woman he had ever seen. Then a burst of laughter came from the dining-room where Willie was doing something clever with a bottle and a pack of cards, and Gerald remembered that he and Celia were not the only two people in the world. He pulled himself together and tried to appear at his ease.
    â€œHaven’t seen you for ages,” he said, and held out his hand.
    As their hands met Gerald was aware of a sudden trembling weakness that ran right through him. Heremembered that it had been like that the first time he had met her; and he remembered also that he had no right to let it be like that now.
    â€œCome … come on in,” he said. “We were just wondering where you’d got to, Tony, old man.”
    The three of them completely filled the tiny hall and Celia was almost in his arms as he shut the front door. She was using the same scent which she had always used. At each breath Gerald felt that he was stepping back a couple of years into the past.
    But it was difficult to be sentimental in Tony’s presence. He was in the mood of a man who is determined to make a good evening of it. As he took off his coat he removed something heavy from his pocket. It was a bottle of whisky.
    â€œGuessed this was a bottle party,” he said, “so I thought I’d bring something along.”
    â€œThanks very much, old chap,” said Gerald. “Very decent of you.”
    â€œNot a bit,” Tony answered. “Probably drink it all myself.” He put his hand on Celia’s shoulder and the two of them went through into the dining-room.
    The party was working up pretty nicely by now. The air was milky with cigarette smoke and loud with talk. And the table looked very different already. It was as though drunken Cossacks had raided the place. Most of the sandwiches had been eaten and small fragments of egg and ham had been dropped among the cakes and tartlets. The empty beer bottles were collected in an untidy huddle in the corner.
    Gerald pushed Celia over in Alice’s direction. “You’ve met Celia Hunt before,” he said. “You met her up at