The Malcontents by C.P. Snow

Over the telephone to Tess, in a hurry, possible meeting places for tea leaving him blank as though he were a stranger in the town, Stephen had finally come out with the name, Simpkin and James. It was an unlikely rendezvous for them. This was the local Fortnum and Mason's, a grocery for the genteel, not long after this to be, like other small genteel emporia, closed down. Stephen had sometimes been taken there for tea when he was a child, but had not been inside since. There, in the café upstairs, overheated, overscented, full of provincial ladies, at a side table Tess was waiting for him. As he went towards her, he seemed to be the only man in the room.

‘How's it gone? ' she said.