Geoffrey reflected rapidly. The thing was ridiculous, and yet it was
possible. Beyond that brief line in answer to his letter, he had heard
nothing from Beatrice. Indeed he was waiting to hear from her before
taking any further step. But even supposing she were in London, where
was he to look for her? He knew that she had no money, she could not
stay there long. It occurred to him there was a train leaving Euston
for Wales about four in the morning. It was just possible that she
might be in town, and returning by this train. He told the cabman to
drive to Euston Station, and on arrival, closely questioned a sleepy
porter, but without satisfactory results.
Then he searched the station; there were no traces of Beatrice. He did
more; he sat down, weary as he was, and waited for an hour and a half,
till it was time for the train to start. There were but three
passengers, and none of them in the least resembled Beatrice.
“It is very strange,” Geoffrey said to himself, as he walked away. “I
could have sworn that I felt her presence just for one second. It must
have been nonsense. This is what comes of occult influences, and that
kind of thing. The occult is a nuisance.”
If he had only gone to Paddington!
CHAPTER XXVIII.
I WILL WAIT FOR YOU
Beatrice drove back to Paddington, and as she drove, though her face
did not change from its marble cast of woe the great tears rolled down
it, one by one.
They reached the deserted-looking station, and she paid the man out of
her few remaining shillings—seeing that she was a stranger, he insisted
upon receiving half-a-crown. Then, disregarding the astonished stare of
a night porter, she found her way to the waiting room, and sat down.
First she took the letter from her breast, and added some lines to it
in pencil, but she did not post it yet; she knew that if she did so it
would reach its destination too soon. Then she laid her head back
against the wall, and utterly outworn, dropped to sleep—her last sleep
upon this earth, before the longest sleep of all.
And thus Beatrice waited and slept at Paddington, while her lover
waited and watched at Euston.
At five she woke, and the heavy cloud of sorrow, past, present, and to
come, rushed in upon her heart. Taking her bag, she made herself as
tidy as she could. Then she stepped outside the station into the
deserted street, and finding a space between the houses, watched the
sun rise over the waking world. It was her last sunrise, Beatrice
remembered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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