"No, sir; no," answered Susan, shaking her head. "She knows no one in
London except Miss Earnshaw. How should she when she has never been
there? Oh, my poor young lady! My poor, dear young lady! God grant she
may find Miss Earnshaw!"
Bernard left her in tears, and hurried off to his home, in order to pack
a small bag which he could carry on his bicycle to Doncaster Station.
Having trimmed his bicycle-lamp and eaten a little supper, without much
appetite, he strapped his bag on his bicycle and again set off for
Doncaster, arriving there in time for the first night express.
During the hours of that long, rapid journey south he was full of fears
and doubts; fears for the welfare of the girl who had run away from her
old home in such terrible grief, and despair and doubt as to his power
to find, console, and persuade her to take back her promise not to marry
him.
The hours of the night wore slowly away, until at 3.5 in the morning his
train arrived at King’s Cross. Nothing could be done at that hour, and,
after making inquiries at the station as to whether any young lady had
arrived by the train from Doncaster, which reached King’s Cross at 10.45
P.M., without eliciting any satisfactory information, he lounged about
for a couple of hours, and then went out in search of a coffee-house,
and was glad to find one at last where he could obtain some hot, if
muddy, coffee, and a little bread and butter.
The homely fare caused him to realise the state of his finances as
nothing else would have done. This was what it meant to be bereft of
fortune! For others would be the comforts and pleasant appointments of
good hotels; for others would be ease, culture, and luxuries: he himself
would have to take a poor man’s place in the world. He would have to be
content with penny cups of coffee and halfpenny buns, with poor clothes
and a little home--thankful indeed if he could secure that.
"But no matter," he said to himself, raising his head and smiling so
brightly that several persons in the coffee-house turned to look at him.
"No matter, if I win Doris for my wife. With her dear face near me, and
her sweet and gentle words of encouragement sounding in my ears, I can
bear all and everything. She will transform a plain little cottage into
a palace by her presence, and will make a poor man rich. I can be
content with anything, shall want nothing, when I have Doris." And
afterwards, when he was walking about in the soft, misty rain, which
seemed to him so black and cheerless, he said again to himself, "It
doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now that I am going to Doris."
For he felt confident that he would find her at Earl’s Court Square when
he arrived there. Of course she would have gone straight there in a
cab, as it would be night-time when she arrived at King’s Cross. There
was nothing else that she could do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account