THE WARDEN HURRIES
The Warden was on his way to the station. For three days he had done
what he could to keep out of May Dashwood's presence. He had invented no
excuses for seeing her, he had invented reasons for not seeing her.
These three days of self-restraint were almost over.
He could have returned home in time to take her to the railway-station
himself if he had intended to do so. His business was over and he
lingered, a desperate conscientiousness forcing him to linger. He
allowed himself to be button-holed by other men, not completely aware of
what was being said to him, because all the time in his imagination he
saw May waiting for him. He pictured her going down the staircase to the
hall and getting into her taxi alone. He pictured this while some one
propounded to him plans, not only for successfully getting rid of party
politics, but for the regeneration of the whole human race. It was at
that point that he broke away. Some one else proposed walking back to
King's with him.
"I'm going to the station," said the Warden, and he struck off by
himself and began to walk faster. He had run it too close, he risked
missing her altogether. That he did not intend. He meant to arrive a
moment before the train started. It was surely not part of his duty to
be absolutely discourteous! He must just say "Good-bye." He began to
walk still faster, for it seemed likely that he might be too late even
to say "Good-bye."
In Beaumont Street a taxi was in sight. He hailed it and got in. The man
seemed an outrageously long time getting the car round and started. He
seemed to be playing with the curb of the pavement. At last he started.
The squalor of the approach to the station did not strike the Warden
this afternoon. It always had struck him before unpleasantly. Just now
he was merely aware of vehicles to be passed before he could reach the
station, and he had his eyes on his watch continually to see how the
moments were going. Suppose the train moved off just as he reached the
platform? The Warden put his hand on the door ready to jump out. He had
the fare already in the other hand. The station at last!
He got out of the taxi swiftly. No, the train was there and the platform
was sprinkled with people--some men in khaki; many women. He was just in
time, but only just--not in time to help her, or to speak with her or
say anything more than just "Good-bye."
A sudden rage filled him. He ran his eyes along the whole length of the
platform. She was probably seated in a carriage already, reading, Oxford
forgotten perhaps! In that case why was he hurrying like this? Why was
he raging?
No, there she was! The sight of her made his heart beat wildly. She was
there, standing by an open carriage door, looking wistfully along the
platform, looking for him! A porter was slamming the doors to already.
The Warden strode along and came face to face with her. Under the large
brimmed hat and through the veil, he could see that she had turned ashy
pale. They stared for a moment at each other desperately, and he could
see that she was trembling. The porter laid his hand on the door. "Are
you getting in, m'm?"
Only a week ago the Warden had committed the one rash and foolish action
of his life. He had done it in ignorance of his own personal needs and
with, perhaps, the unconscious cynicism of a man who has lived for forty
years unable to find his true mate. But since then his mind had been lit
up with the flash of a sudden poignant experience. He knew now what he
wanted; what he must have, or fail. He knew that there was nothing else
for him. It was this or nothing. The sight of her face, her trembling,
pierced his soul with an amazing joy, and it seemed as if the voice of
some invisible Controller of all human actions, great and small,
breathed in his ear saying: "Now! Take your chance! This is your true
destiny!"
There was no one in the carriage but a young girl at the further end
huddled behind a novel. But had there been twenty there, it would not
have altered his resolution. The Warden placed his hand on May's arm.
"I am travelling with this lady as far as Reading," he said to the
porter, "but I have come too late to get a ticket. Tell the guard,
please."
The Warden showed no sign now of haste or excitement; he had regained
his usual courteous and deliberate manner, for the purpose of his life
was his again. He helped her in and followed her. The door was banged
behind them. There was May's little bundle of rug and umbrella on the
seat. He moved it on one side so that she could sit there. The train
began to slide off.
May sank into her seat too dazed to think. He sat down opposite to her.
They both knew that the moment of their lives had come.
Then he leaned forward, not caring whether he was observed or not
observed from the other end of the carriage. He leaned forward and
grasping both of May's hands in his, he looked into her eyes with his
own slow moving, narrow eyes that absorbed the light. The corners of her
mouth were trembling, her eyelids trembling.
They never spoke a word as the train moved away and left behind that
fair ancient city enshrined in squalor and in raucous brick; left behind
the flat meadows, the sluggish river and the leafless crooked willows;
but a strange glory came from the west and flooded the whole earth and
the carriage where they sat.
THE END
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES,
ENGLAND
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| Transcriber's Notes |
| |
| Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, with the |
| exception of those contained within letters, which are thought to |
| be deliberate. |
| |
| The oe ligature has been replaced by oe. |
| |
| Where a word has been spelled inconsistently within the text (e.g. |
| to-day and today), the spellings have been changed to the one more |
| frequently used. |
| |
| All other spellings and punctuation are as in the original text. |
| |
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