Once more I entered the depot, and mingled with the crowd around the
ticket office. But no pen can describe my terror when I found myself the
object of particular attention. I heard people remark about my strange
and unnatural appearance, and I feared I might be taken up for a crazy
person, if not for a nun. Thinking that I saw an enemy in every face,
and a pursuer in every one who came near me, I hastened to take refuge
in the cars. There I waited with the greatest impatience for the
starting of the train. Slowly the cars were filled; very leisurely the
passengers sought their seats, while I sat trembling in every limb, and
the cold perspiration starting from every pore. How carefully I scanned
every face! how eagerly I watched for some indication of the priest or
the spy! So intense was my anxiety, those few moments seemed to me an
age of agony. At length the shrill whistle announced that all was ready,
and like sweetest music the sound fell upon my ears. The train dashed
off at lightning speed, but to me it seemed like the movement of a
snail.
Once under way, I ventured to breathe freely, and hope again revived.
Perchance I might yet escape. But even as the thought passed my mind, a
man entered the cars and seated himself directly, before me. I thought
he regarded me with too much interest, and thinking to shun him, I
quietly left my seat and retired to the other end of the car. He soon
followed, and again my fears revived. He at first tried to converse with
me, but finding I would not reply, he began to question me in the most
direct and impertinent manner. Again I changed my seat, and again he
followed. I then sought the conductor, and revealed to him enough of my
history to enlist his sympathy and ensure his protection. To his honor
be it spoken, I did not appeal to him in vain. He severely reproved the
man for his impertinence; and for the rest of the journey I was shielded
from insult or injury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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