The Combined Maze

rmaceutical Chemist in his father's shop, because he could not stand his father's ubiquity. And yet he was not free to leave his father's house; for he did not see how, as things were going, he cou

bird to the rude criticism of people who did not know how good he was. That was what his mother, bless her! had been trying to make him see. And if it came to ex

t come once, perhaps, but not again. The H

to be a furtive and a secret thing. He loathed anything furtive, and he hated secrecy. And Winny would loathe and hate them, too.

e he had always supposed that he would marry some day; but as for making love

re. It blunted the fine razorlike edge of his appetite for Sunday supper. It obscured his interest in The Pink 'Un, which he had unearthed from under the

them; yes, a beastly shame it was to go and tie a girl to you when you couldn't keep her properly, to say nothing of letting her in for having kids you couldn't keep at all. Ranny had very fixed and firm opinions about marrying; for he had seen fellows doing it, rushing bald-headed into this tremendous business, for

ed over him, pressed on him, and threatened him; watching it glimmer and darken and glimmer again to the dawn. He had put away from him the almost tangible vision of Winny lyi

to have for Winny, he would have to put that

eeing her until he could afford it; but to this pitch

o see her. He had

he shop, to keep (he said) in his drawer among his handkerchiefs. And in his drawer, among his handkerchiefs, he kept it, wrapped tenderly in tissue paper. He tried hard to forget that he had really bought it to give to Winny on her birthday. He tried har

counting-house, and the fellows noticed it and sniffed. And, oh, how they chaffed him. "Um-m-m. You been rolling in a bed of violets, Ranny?" A

ose about the drawer. He shut the lid down tight on the smell and took the box and hid it in the cupboard where his boots were, where the smell couldn't possibly g

pocket, and he had peace in his pen. His fellow-clerks suspected hi

omen typists. On his left the petty cashier's pen, overlooking the women. Next came the ledger clerks, then the statement clerks; and facing these the long desk of the checking staff. At the back of the room, right and left, were the pens of the very youngest clerks, who made invoices. From their high desks they could see the bald spot on the assistant sec

ured in their effect by the heavy mahogany of their pens, by the shining brass trellis-work that screened them, by the emerald green of the hanging lamp

e eternal rustling of the white papers, the scratching of pens, the thud of ledgers on de

part in it; through the intensity of their absorption they were detached. Every now and then one of them would

o was the bowing of his head, the cramping of hi

atement clerk at eight pounds a month. Working up through all his grades, he would become a ledger clerk at twelve pounds a month. He might stick at that forever, but if he had luck he might become a petty cashier at sixteen pounds. That couldn't happen before he wa

house. Woolridge's offered a shameless encouragement to these. It lured them on; it laid out its nets for them and caught and tangled them and flung them to their ruin. All over London and the provinces Woolridge's posters were displayed; flaunting yet insidious posters where a young man and a young woman with innocent, idiotic faces were seen gazing, fascinated, into Woolridge's windows. Wo

d. He rowed hard on the river. He was so fit that in June (just before stock-taking) he entered for the Wandsworth Athlet

liked to help her in her first fierce charging of them, with a strong hand at the back of her waist. That was nothing to the joy of scorching on the level

orner of a meadow in Southfields. All day Ransome had been overcome b

d her sidelong, it struck him all at once that Winny's life was worse even than his own. Winny was clever, and she had a berth as book-keeper in Starker's, one of the smaller drap

suddenly, "do you

, but she was not going to say so lest h

decent to you

said Winny, in her grandest manner,

l right if you like it. But

business

p it. Born

now. I mean to enjoy life," s

sky, said that that was a jolly sight more than he did

this utterance w

ever in the world

answered, gloom

idea!" sa

else. At any rate, it was his idea. And W

are things a fellow

ort of

sor

em. Think," said Winny, "o

t th

ther-and new tires to your bike. Good boots" (she had stuck buttercups in their la

ed, smiling because of the butte

little head on one side. "And you've won the silver cup

fellow hasn't

haven't yo

. "I've no prospects. N

cision. "And didn't ought

for him and no under

ed about him, and

f nothing else to say he sug

he mounted her bicycle, the shut firmness of her mouth, the straightness of her back, and the grip of her little hands on the hand

ed what it wa