Eustace read no more. Sick and faint with an extraordinary revulsion of
feeling, he leant against the door of the masonic shop, which promptly
opened in the most hospitable manner, depositing him upon his back on
the floor of the establishment. In a second he was up, and had bounded
out of the shop with such energy that the shopman was on the point of
holloaing “Stop thief!” It was exactly five o’clock, and he was not
more than a quarter of a mile or so from Waterloo Station. A hansom was
sauntering along in front of him, he sprang into it. “Waterloo, main
line,” he shouted, “as hard as you can go,” and in another moment he
was rolling across the bridge. Five or six minutes’ drive brought him
to the station, to which an enormous number of people were hurrying,
collected together partly by a rumour of what was going on, and partly
by that magnetic contagion of excitement which runs through a London
mob like fire through dry grass.
He dismissed the hansom, throwing the driver half-a-crown, which,
considering that half-crowns were none too plentiful with him, was a
rash thing to do, and vigorously shouldered his way through the crush
till he reached the spot where the carriage and pair were standing. The
carriage was just beginning to move on.
“Stop!” he shouted at the top of his voice to the coachman, who pulled
up again. In another moment he was alongside, and there, sweeter and
more beautiful than ever, he once more saw his love.
She started at his voice, which she seemed to know, and their eyes met.
Their eyes met and a great light of happiness shot into her sweet face
and shone there till it was covered up and lost in the warm blush that
followed.
He tried to speak, but could not. Twice he tried, and twice he failed,
and meanwhile the mob shouted like anything. At last, however, he got
it out—“Thank God!” he stammered, “thank God you are safe!”
For answer, she stretched out her hand and gave him one sweet look. He
took it, and once more the carriage began to move on.
“Where are you to be found?” he had the presence of mind to ask.
“At Lady Holmhurst’s. Come to-morrow morning; I have something to tell
you,” she answered, and in another minute the carriage was gone,
leaving him standing there in a condition of mind which really “can be
better imagined than described.”
CHAPTER XIV.
AT HANOVER-SQUARE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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