David strolled out into the crowded solitude of the streets, with
a vague mind of Gwendoline Barnes and Johann Strauss, two misty
personalities veiled under false names. But they so dwelt in his mind
that he asked himself if he had fled from the pursuit of a living woman
in far Wyoming to be haunted by a dead one in England? Like most
strangers in London, he turned to the police for counsel, and told to an
inspector on duty at a police-station his tale of the whiff of violets,
of the extinguished light in his corridor, and of the real or fancied
brush of a woman's skirt somewhere against wall or carpet. He was
listened to with kindliness, though, of course, without much faith.
However, he learned from the inspector the address of the coroner's
court where the inquest had probably been held; it was near by, and
David's steps led him thither. There he asked some questions at
haphazard, without picking up anything of fresh interest; unless it
was that "Gwendoline Barnes" lay buried in Kensal Green cemetery.
It was now late in the afternoon. He strolled down Tottenham Court Road
into Holborn, ate a deferred luncheon in Oxford-St., and started to
saunter back home, shirking a theater matinée, which was irksome since
it was the fixed thing on his program. But it struck him half-way home
that his charwoman was gone, that the flat was lonely; he got into a
cab, saying to the driver: "Kensal Green cemetery!"
Some electric lamps were a-flicker already in the streets. It was nearly
the hour at which London roars loudest, when the city begins to pour out
its hordes, and vans hurry to their bourne, with blocks in the traffic,
and more haste, less speed. When he reached the cemetery the closing
time was imminent.
A little snow lay among the graves, through which the grass-tufts
showed, making a ground of black-and-white. Some few stars had ventured
to peep from the wintry sky. A custodian supplied David with the formal
information which he sought. The plot of ground had been bought in
perpetuity; it was in a shaded place a good distance from the entrance;
an Iona cross, erected by friends, marked the spot, bearing the one
word, "Gwendoline."
"It is late, sir," said the man. But mighty is the power of the tip,
even in cemeteries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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