Читать книгу A Town Like Alice онлайн

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"Not a bit," I said. "I haven't been to the opera or anything like that for years."

She smiled. "Well, of course I'd love to come," she said. "I've never seen an opera in my life. I don't even know what happens."

We sat talking about these things for an hour or more, till it was half-past nine and she got up to go; she had three-quarters of an hour to travel out to her suburban lodgings. I went with her, because she was going from St. James's Park station, and I didn't care about the thought of so young a woman walking across the park alone late at night. At the station, standing on the dark, wet pavement by the brightly-lit canopy, she put out her hand.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Strachan, for the dinner, and for everything you're doing for me," she said.

"It has been a very great pleasure to me, Miss Paget," I replied, and I meant it.

She hesitated, and then she said, smiling, "Mr. Strachan, we're going to have a good deal to do with each other. My name is Jean. I'll go crackers if you keep on calling me Miss Paget."