The telephone rang and I lifted it. The voice of an operator said, «Miss Baffin is calling you from an Ealing call box, will you pay for the call?»
«What? Is that-?»
«Miss Baffin is calling you-«
«Yes, yes, I'll pay, yes-«Bradley. It's me.»
«Oh darling-Oh thank God-«Bradley, quickly, I must see you, I've run away.»
«Oh good, oh my darling, I've been in such a-«Me too. Look, I'm in a telephone box near Ealing Broadway station, I haven't any money.»
«I'll come and fetch you in a taxi.»
«I'll hide in a shop, I'm so terrified of-«Oh my darling girl-«Tell the taxi to drive slowly past the station, I'll see you.»
«Yes, yes.»
«But, Bradley, we can't be at your place, that's where they'll go.»
«Never mind them. I'm coming to fetch you.»
«What happened?»
«Oh, Bradley, it's been such a nightmare «But what happened?»
«I was an absolute idiot, I told them all about it in a sort of triumphant aggressive way, I felt so happy, I couldn't conceal it or muffle it, and they were livid, at least at first they simply couldn't believe it, and then they rushed off to see you, and I should have run away then, only I was feeling sort of combative and I wanted another session and then when they came back they were much worse, I've never seen my father so upset and angry, he was quite violent.»
«God, he didn't beat you?»
«No, no, but he shook me till I was quite giddy and he broke a lot of things in my room-«Oh my sweet-«Then I started to cry and couldn't stop.»
«Yes, when I came round-«
«You came round?»
«They didn't tell you?»
«Dad said later on that he'd seen you again. He said you'd agreed to give it all up. I didn't believe him of course.»
«Oh my brave dear! He told me you didn't want to see me. Of course I didn't believe him either.»
She said, «I love my parents. I suppose. Well, of course I do. Especially my father. Anyway I've never doubted it. But there are things one can't forgive. It's the end of something. And the beginning of something.» She turned to me with gravity, her face very tired, a little puffy and battered and creased with much crying, and grim too. One saw what she would look like when she was fifty. And for an instant her unforgiving face reminded me of Rachel in the terrible room.
«Oh Julian, I've brought irrevocable things to you.»
