Indeed, Lionel was much more anxious than she was. He would rather have
done without that paragraph in the newspapers. All his senses were on
the rack; and yet he could make out absolutely nothing of his
whereabouts in this formless void of a world, with its opaque
atmosphere, its distant calls, inquiries, warnings, its murky
lamp-lights that only became visible when they were over one's head.
Miss Burgoyne seemed to be well content, to be amused even. She liked to
see her name in the newspapers. There would be a pretty little paragraph
to get quoted in gossippy columns, even if she and her more anxious
fellow-adventurer did not reach home till breakfast-time.
The link-boys certainly deserved the very substantial reward that Lionel
bestowed on them; for when, after what seemed interminable hours--with
all kinds of stoppages and inquiries in this Egyptian darkness--the cab
came to a final halt, and when Miss Burgoyne had been piloted across the
pavement, she declared that here, indubitably, was her own door. Indeed,
at this very moment it was opened, and there was a glimmer of a candle
in the passage.
"No, Mr. Moore," she said, distinctly, when Lionel came back after
paying the cabman, "you are not going off like that, certainly not. You
must be starving; you must come up-stairs and have something to eat and
drink." "Jim," she said, addressing her brother, who was standing there,
candle in hand, "have you left any supper for us?"
"I haven't touched a thing yet," said he. "I've been waiting for you I
don't know how long."
"There's a truly heroic brother!" exclaimed the young lady, as she
pulled Lionel into the little lobby and shut the door. "What's enough
for two is enough for three. Come along, Mr. Moore; and now you've got
safely into a house, I think you'd much better have Jim's room for the
night--or the morning, rather? I'm sure Jim won't mind taking the sofa."
"I? Not I!" said her brother, blowing out the candle as they entered the
lamp-lit room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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