Even though she was always so bright and agreeable towards me, I felt,
by intuition, that she had penetrated my disguise, and that, sooner or
later, she would constitute my gravest danger. Therefore, I resolved
to see my father in secret, and, after obtaining funds, change my
quarters.
Yet would not such an action confirm her suspicions and those of the
police? In my frantic fear I was undecided how to act.
Next day it was still rather foggy, but towards evening it grew
thicker, a condition which I welcomed when I went forth to my
rendezvous. I left the house at ten o’clock, and walked slowly in the
murky gloom along the Camberwell Road, where the street-lamps, usually
brilliant, were half hidden in the mantle of one of those “pea
soupers” which the Londoner knows so well. Traffic was nearly at a
standstill, and a strange silence had fallen on the usually busy
thoroughfare. Ascending Denmark Hill, I discovered, not without
difficulty, Champion Park, a turning on the left which led to the
station. It was a quiet thoroughfare of large houses. The fog was not
quite so intense on the hill as in Camberwell below, and, in a few
minutes, I saw my gray-bearded father standing in the booking-office
awaiting me.
He recognized me at the door and came out to meet me.