She smiled again. And then I wanted to be alone with her, to
enjoy the intimacy of her presence, without a lot of servants all over
the place; so I went out of the drawing-room and packed off the whole
tribe for the evening, all except Mrs. Dant. I kept Mrs. Dant to attend
on Camilla.
We had dinner sent up; it was like a picnic, jolly and childish.
Camilla was charming. And then I took photographs of her by flashlight,
with immense success. We developed them together in the dark-room. That
evening was the first time I had ever been really happy in all my life.
And I was really happy, although every now and then the idea would shoot
through my head: 'Only for a year or two at most; perhaps only for a day
or two!'
I returned to the dark-room alone for something or other, and when I
came back into the drawing-room she was not there. By heaven! my heart
went into my mouth. I feared she had run away, after all. However, I met
her in the passage. She looked very frightened; her face was quite
changed; but she said nothing had occurred. I kissed her; she let me.
Soon afterwards she went on to the roof. She tried to be cheerful, but I
saw she had something on her mind. She said she must go home, and begged
my permission to precede me into the flat in order to prepare for her
departure.
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