As  a  girl  Adela  had  been  given  rather  to  affectations,
and  so  Louis  had  not  cared  for  her  greatly.  She  had
worn  her  hair  eccentrically,  and  had  early  taken  to  tight
lacing.  She  had  been  "grown-up"  before  her  time,  and
he  remembered  that  she  had  looked  at  him  with  sophisti-
cated eyes  in  days  when  he  had  become  self-conscious
about  his  sex.  She  had  known  other  boys  better  than
he.  He  had  seen  her,  at  fourteen  or  fifteen,  riding  upon
bicycles,  and  had  met  her  at  small  distances,  always  with
two  or  three  rather  croaking  juvenile  cavaliers,  who
smoked  cigarettes  and  had  their  hair  greatly  brushed
and  heavily  watered.  He  remembered  that  he  had  never
formed  one  of  her  party,  but  had  been  commented  upon
by  it.  He  even  thought  that  Adela  had  made  some  ad-
vances to  him  at  that  time,  but  they  were  half -forgotten.
Among  his  intuitions  had  been  the  belief  that  Adela's
journey  ings  involved  the  telling  of  small  fibs,  such  as
that  she  had  cycled  to  such  and  such  a  place  with  another
girl,  a  friend.  The  other  girl  had  been — not  absolutely
an  invention,  but  an  accomplice,  with  her  own  cavaliers.
Louis  remembered  her  pasty  face  and  harsh  voice.  He
had  not  liked  either  of  them.  Nor  had  he  liked  the  boys,
who  wore  school  caps  upon  the  backs  of  their  watered
heads  and  who  held  their  cigarettes  in  such  a  way  that


106  SHOPS  AND  HOUSES

the  burning  ends  were  palm-inwards,  ready  for  conceal-
ment in  case  any  adult  should  by  chance  come  that  way.
