City and town life -- Fiction; Urban poor -- Fiction
By consulting _Bradshaw_, Harry found that they might reach Newhaven
before the boat started; perhaps catch the very train by which Richard
Pellet travelled, though the probability was that they would find him to
have an hour's start of them, but by a slow train--that is, if he had
gone at all, which Harry was sometimes disposed to doubt. But then he
had taken luggage, and had written a direction, so the man said; and in
corroboration he brought a blotting-pad, and part of a book of adhesive
luggage labels, one of which was written upon; but, perhaps from want of
legibility, smeared hastily over. But there, plain enough to read, was
the address--"R. Pellet, Hotel Laroche, R--."
That was all. Where would "R" be? Some Rue in Paris, Harry thought;
when his eyes fell upon the blotting-pad--one that had hardly been used,
but upon which, in reverse, he could now make out the same address, left
by another label that had been blotted upon it. "R. Pellet" was
perfectly plain; and then, with a little puzzling, he made out the
rest,--"Hotel Laroche, Rouen."
"Can we have the brougham?" said Harry, for he was now satisfied.
"D'reckly, sir," answered the man. But "d'reckly" proved to be a full
half-hour afterwards, when, just as Harry was about to set off on foot
for the station, the brougham came round to the door, and they stepped
in.
"Station--quick!" said Harry.
The man drove quickly; but they were only in time to see one train glide
away through the darkness, leaving them waiting impatiently for the
next.
Fortunately for the travellers, the trains succeeded each other very
rapidly, and getting out at London Bridge, they had just time to cross
over and reach the express as the last bell rang, hurrying into a
carriage and giving vent to a sigh of relief as they felt it glide away
into the outer darkness.
Gazing out of the window at the lamps here and there dimly seen through
the fog that hung over them, Harry's companion sat without speaking a
word. Harry had ventured one or two remarks, but she had only made an
impatient gesture with her hand, and, out of respect for her evident
anxiety, he remained silent, and sat pondering over the probable
termination of his expedition. It had been so hurried and excited an
affair, that he had not before had time to think calmly: neither was a
rapid express train upon the Brighton railway a desirable place for
quiet meditation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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