Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 8.djvu/221

 "You must come and see us," she said, "before we go to Bruges."

"Oo, rather!" said Kipps. "If I may."

"Yes, do," she said, and suddenly stood up before Kipps could formulate an inquiry when he should call.

"You're sure you can spare that drawing-board?" she said to Miss Coote, and the conversation passed out of range.

And when he had said "Good-bye" to Miss Walshingham and she had repeated her invitation to call, he went upstairs again with Coote to look out certain initiatory books they had had under discussion. And then Kipps, blowing very resolutely, went back to his own place, bearing in his arm (1) "Sesame and Lilies," (2) "Sir George Tressady," (3) an anonymous book on "Vitality" that Coote particularly esteemed. And having got to his own sitting-room, he opened "Sesame and Lilies" and read it with ruthless determination for some time.

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Presently he leaned back and gave himself up to the business of trying to imagine just exactly what Miss Walshingham could have thought of him when she saw him. Doubts about the precise effect of the grey flannel suit began to trouble him. He turned to the mirror over the mantel, and then got on to a chair to study the hang of the trousers. It looked all right. Luckily, she had not seen the Panama hat. He knew that he had the brim turned up wrong, but he could not find out which way the brim was right. How-