What was she to do? She tried to think; as she had tried so often of
late; her brain, like her muscles, played her false; clear thought was
beyond her. One thing she realised--that she must not be there when he
came back; in spite--because--of what he had said. Yet how was she to
avoid being there? He had told her that if she went to bed he would
fetch her back again; and she believed him. Once, at a hotel in
France, he had made a great clatter at her room door; and was only
prevented by practically the entire staff of the establishment from
breaking it down. Somehow she felt that that night nothing would keep
him from having her out of her room again, if she disobeyed his
command, and fled to it. But, if she did not, what was she to do,
where was she to go, so that she might not be there when he came back?
Again and again, in France, had she meditated flight; only the
conviction that the result would be fiasco had restrained her. Was she
more likely to succeed, here, in England? Even through her mental haze
a feeling was borne in upon her that in that direction lay her only
hope. If she could only put a descent distance between herself and him
she might escape him altogether. The point was, could she? An idea
occurred to her--the railway. The first time in her life, so far as
she remembered, she had, that day, been in a train. She had, of
course, read about trains; she had even seen them; the probability was
that she had been brought in one to the convent. But, in those days,
she was a toddling child; she had certainly not been in one since. Mr
Emmett had brought her in one from London. Then why should she not go
alone in one, if not back to London, then at least to some place, a
long way off, where she would be beyond his reach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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