Miss Cole was quite sure that she would not, but she restrained herself. She looked Katharine up and down, from the small plain hat to the neat plain shoes, took in the fact that her tweed suit was by no means new, and summed up the result as ‘Come down in the world.’ Lots of people about like that nowadays – born with silver spoons in their mouths and had everything their own way, and then some kind of a slide or some kind of a crash, and out they have to go and get a job – sorry for themselves because they’ve got to do what other girls have always known they’d have to do. Miss Cole had gone out at fourteen and worked to get her experience, but these ladies – she gave the word a bitter emphasis – they expected to walk in and get jobs without any experience at all. She said sharply,

‘What experience have you had?’

Katharine was frank.

‘None for this sort of thing, I’m afraid, but I could learn. I was in the A.T.S. during the war.’

‘And since?’

‘I wasn’t demobilised for quite a long time, and then – I took a holiday. Now I want a job – rather badly.’

‘Money run out,’ thought Miss Cole. ‘That’s the way with her sort – lipstick and rouge, and not a penny put away.’

William let her talk to Miss Cole, because all he really wanted was to look at her. She was tall and graceful. She moved like clouds, like water, like anything lovely and effortless and free. She had brown hair under a little brown hat. She had brown eyes. Bright water, dark water – that was what they made you think about. They changed, and changed again, but they were always beautiful. He watched the colour flow back under the skin until you couldn’t see the pink stain which had been there. It just deepened the natural colour, that was all. He liked the soft colour of her lipstick – not splashed on, but following the lines of her most lovely mouth. He liked the rather shabby tweed suit and the little green scarf at her throat. She gave him the feeling of completeness, of everything being just right. He heard Miss Cole say, ‘I really don’t know, I’m sure,’ and said in his most direct and simple manner,