England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; English fiction -- 19th century
Hastily her eyes sought the sense of what was written. Thyrza said that
she was well, but could not live longer without seeing her sister.
Lydia was to come by as early a train as possible on the following
morning; money was enclosed to provide for her expenses. No news could
be sent, but in a few hours they would talk to each other. Finally, the
address was to be kept a secret, to be kept even from Gilbert; she
depended upon Lydia to obey her in this. A postscript added: 'You will
easily find the house. I would come to the station and meet every
train, but I couldn't bear to see you there first.'
Lydia had deep misgivings, but they did not occupy her mind for long.
She was going to see Thyrza; that, as she realised it, rang a peal of
joy in her ears and made her forget all else. But the money she would
not use; she had enough to pay her fare, and in any case she would
somehow have obtained it rather than spend this, which came she knew
not from whom. It might be that Thyrza had earned it, but perhaps it
was given to her by an enemy--under this name Lydia had come to think
of Egremont.
She told Gilbert in private. The concealment from him of Thyrza's
address he seemed to accept as something quite natural. He drew a sigh
of relief, and, as Lydia left him, gave her a look whose meaning was
not hard to understand.
The new day did come at last, and at last Lydia was in the train; she
had remembered that by which Thyrza went with Bessie, and she took the
same. A strange feeling she had as, instead of going to the work-room,
she set off through the sunshine to the railway station; a holiday
feeling, had she known what holiday meant. That she was going for the
first time to the sea-side was nothing; her anticipation was only of
Thyrza's look and Thyrza's first kiss. Why were all the other people
who went by the same train so joyous and so full of hope? Were they too
going to meet someone very dear to them?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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