The Hand That First Held Mine

Lexie is walking home from work at a London department store; the narrator describes her as “different from the Lexie in Innes’s room […] different from the Alexandra in a blue dress and yellow kerchief […] wearing the red and grey livery of the shop, the regulation red scarf tied around her throat” (63-64). When she arrives home, she finds her housemates and her landlady gathered around Innes, who has come to visit her. He captivates the women with stories and a genial attitude and invites Lexie to lunch on his way out, giving her the address of his magazine office in Soho.

When Lexie arrives at the Elsewhere office, she marvels at the neighborhood. The point of view switches to Innes as she enters the office. He is entirely occupied with the artist the magazine is profiling and the appropriate font and language for the article. He sees Lexie through the door and leaps down the stairs to her. The point of view shifts back to Lexie as they talk about Innes’s suit and leave for lunch. They talk over lunch and Innes becomes progressively more enamored with Lexie as his passion and excitement enchant her.