Though the hour was late, the streets were thronged. The people were
trooping home from the theaters; and the Strand, as Greta and the
landlady crossed it, was choked with cabs and omnibuses. The cab drove
through the Seven Dials, and there the public-houses were disgorging at
every corner their poor ruins of men and women. Shouts, curses,
quarreling, and laughter struck upon the ear above the whir of the
wheels. Unshaven men and unwashed women, squalid children running here
and there among the oyster and orange stalls, thieves, idlers, vagabonds
of all conditions, not a few honest people withal, and among them the
dark figures of policemen.
Greta's heart beat high that night. Her spirit was full of a new
alacrity. Every inch of the way, as they flew over the busy streets,
seemed to awake in her soul some fresh sensibility. She wondered where
the multitudes of people came from, and whither they were going--vast
oceans on oceans of humanity, flowing and ebbing without tide.
She wanted to alight a hundred times, and empty her pockets of all her
money. A blind man, playing a tin whistle, and leading a small dog held
by a long string, awoke her special pity; the plaintive look in the eye
of the cur was an object of peculiar sympathy. A filthy woman, reeling
drunk and bareheaded across the street, almost under the feet of the
horses, her discolored breast hanging bare, and a puny infant crying
feebly in her arms, was another occasion for solicitude. A tiny mite
that might have been a dirty boy, coiled up in a ball on a doorstep like
a starved cat, was an object of all but irresistible attraction. But she
dare not stop for an instant; and, at last, with this certainty, she lay
back and shut her eyes very resolutely, and wondered whether, after all,
it were not very selfish to be very happy.
The cab stopped with a jolt; they were at St. Pancras station.
"Has he come?" asked Greta, eagerly, and looked about her with eyes that
comprehended everything at a glance.
She could not see Paul, and when a porter opened the cab and helped her
to alight, it was on her tongue to ask the man if he had seen her
husband. But no, she would not do that. She must look for him herself,
so that she might be the first to see him. Oh, yes, she must be the very
first to see him, and she was now obstinately determined to ask no one.
The porter brought round the truck, and wheeled the luggage onto the
platform, and Greta and Mrs. Drayton followed it. Then the wide eyes
that half smiled and looked half afraid beneath their trembling lids
glanced anxiously around. No, Paul was not there.
"What is the time?" she asked, her eyes still wandering over the
bustling throng about her.
"Ten to twelve, miss," announced the porter.
"Oh," she said, with a sigh of relief, "then he will soon be here."
"Will you sit in the waiting-room, miss?" asked the porter; and almost
unconsciously she followed him when he led the way. Mrs. Drayton hobbled
behind her.
"What did he say about being ill?" she asked, when they were left
together.
"That he was only a bit dizzy. Mayhap he's noways 'customed to illness,"
said the landlady.
"That is true. And what did you say then?"
"I coaxed him to rest him a bit, and take a drop o' summat, and he
smiled and said, 'Thank you, my good woman.'
"You were in the right, you dear old soul," said Greta. And she put her
arms about the landlady and hugged her. "I'm sure you've been very good
to my husband, and watched him tenderly, while I, who should have nursed
him, have been away. Thank you, thank you!"
Mrs. Drayton was feeling uneasy. "Well, d'ye know, I can't bear to see a
fellow creatur' suffer. It goes agen me someways."
Greta had risen to her feet. "Stay here, Mrs. Drayton--Drayton, isn't
it?--stay here while I go on to the platform. He might come and not see
me. Ah, yes, he may be looking everywhere for me now."
She went out and elbowed her way among the people who were hurrying to
and fro; she dodged between the trucks that were sliding luggage on to
the weighing machine and off to the van. The engines were puffing
volumes of smoke and steam up to the great glass roof, where the whistle
of the engine-man echoed sharp and shrill. Presently she returned to the
waiting-room.
"Oh, Mrs. Drayton," she said, "I dreamed a fearful dream last night.
What do you think? Will he be well enough to come?"
"Coorse, coorse, my dear. 'Tell her to meet her husband at twelve.'
Them's the gentleman's own words."
"How happy I shall be when we are safe at home! And if he is ill, it
will be for me to nurse him then."
The light in the dove-like eyes at that moment told plainly that to the
poor soul even illness might bring its compensating happiness.
"And as to dreams, to be sure, they are on'y dreams; and what's dreams,
say I?"
"You are right, Mrs. Drayton," said Greta, and once more she shot away
toward the platform. Her mind had turned to Parson Christian. Could it
be possible that he had arrived? The porter who had brought in her
luggage was still standing beside it, and with him there was another
porter. Their backs were toward Greta as she came out of the
waiting-room, and, tripping lightly behind them, she overheard a part of
their conversation before they were aware that she was near.
"See the old file in the gaiters by the eleven up?" said one.
"Rather. A reg'lar grandmother's great-grandfather just out of the year
one. Talk about swallows, eh?--and the buckles--and the stockings!"
"Good sort, how-an'-ever."
"Good for a tip, eh? Wouldn't ha' thought it."
"No, but a real good-hearted 'un an' if he is a Pape."
"Never?"
"To be sure. Got me to put him in a fly for the Catholic Convent up
Westminster way."
Greta could restrain herself no longer, but burst in upon them with
twenty questions. When had the parson arrived? When had he left? Was it
in a fly? Would it go quickly? Could there be time for it to get back?
"What's your train, miss--twelve to the north?"
"Yes; will he catch it?"
"Scarce get back at twelve," said the porter. But, in spite of this
discouraging prophecy, Greta was so elated at the fresh intelligence
that she drew out her purse and gave the man five shillings. She had no
other change than two half crowns and two pennies, and in her present
elevation of soul there could be no choice, between the silver and the
copper, as to which the bearer of such news deserved.
The man stared, and then smiled, but he quickly reconciled himself to
the unexpected. With extraordinary alacrity he labeled the luggage, and
bowled off to the north train, which was already at the platform.
It was now within three minutes of midnight, and Mrs. Drayton had joined
Greta in the bustling throng on the platform.
"Oh, I feel as if a thousand hearts were all swelling and beating in my
breast at once," said Greta. "Mrs. Drayton, is it certain that he will
come? Porter, have you put the luggage in the van? Which is the
train--the left?"
"No, miss, the left's going out to make room for the local train up from
Kentish Town and Hendon. The right's your train, miss. Got your ticket,
miss?"
"Not yet. Must I get it, think you? Is the time short? Yes, I will get
two tickets myself," she added, turning to the landlady. "Then when he
comes he will have nothing to do but step into the carriage."
"You'll have to be quick, miss--train's nigh due out--only a minute,"
said the porter.
Greta's luminous eyes were peering over the heads of the people that
were about her. Then they brightened, with a flash more swift than
lightning, and all her face wore in an instant a heavenly smile. "Ah, he
is there--there at the back--at the booking-office--run to him, run my
good, dear creature; run and tell him I am here! I'll find a compartment
and have the door open."
Greta tripped along the platform with the foot of a deer. In another
moment she had a carriage door open, and she stood there with the handle
in her hand. She saw him coming who was more than all the world to her.
But she did not look twice. No, she would not look twice. She would wait
until they were within, alone, together.
Side by side with him walked Hugh Ritson. Could it be possible? And was
it he who had brought her husband? Ah! he had repented, and it was only
she who had been bitter to the end. How generous of him! how cruel of
her!
Her eyes fell, and a warm flush overspread her cheeks as he who came
first stepped into the carriage. She did not look again at him, nor did
he look again at her. She knew he did not, though her eyes were down.
"Oh, when we are alone!" she thought, and then she turned to Hugh
Ritson.
The heavenly smile was still on her beautiful face, and the deep light
in her eyes spoke of mingled joy and grief.
"Hugh, I fear, I fear," she faltered, "I have been hard and cruel. Let
us be friends; let me be your dearest sister."
He looked at her in silence. His infirm foot trailed a pace. He saw what
was in her heart, and he knew well what was in his own heart, too; he
thought of the blow that he was about to strike her.
She held out her hand, and took in hers his own unresisting fingers. Ay,
he knew that there and then he was about to break that forgiving heart
forever. He knew who had stepped into that carriage.
She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. The man in him could bear up no
longer. He broke down; he could not speak; he was choked with emotion.
She turned to the landlady, who stood near, twitching at the ribbons of
her bonnet and peering into the carriage.
"Good-bye, Mrs. Drayton, and God bless you for what you have done for my
husband!"
The landlady muttered something that was inaudible; she was confused;
she stammered, and then was silent.
Greta stepped into the carriage. The guard was standing at the door. The
bell had been rung. The train had been signaled. The whistle had
sounded. The clocks were striking midnight.
"Wait! Wait!"
It was a voice from the end of the platform. The guard turned with a
smile to see who called on a train to wait. An old gentleman in silk
stockings and gaiters, with long white hair flowing under the broad brim
of a low-crowned hat, came panting to the only door that was still open.
"Quick, sir, it's moving; in with you!"
"Mr. Christian!" cried Greta, and throwing her arms about him, she drew
him into the carriage. Then the train began to move away.
At that instant another train--the local train from Kentish Town and
Hendon--steamed up to the opposite side of the platform. Before it had
stopped two men leaped out. They were the two police-sergeants.
Instantly--simultaneously--a man burst through the barrier and ran on to
the platform from the street. He was bareheaded, and his face was
ghastly white. In one moment the police-sergeants had laid hands upon
him. The train to the north had not yet cleared the platform. He saw it
passing out. He took hold of the hands by which he was held and threw
them off, as if their grasp had been the grasp of a child. Then he
bounded away toward the retreating train. It was now moving rapidly. It
was gone; it was swallowed up in the dark mouth beyond, and the man
stood behind, bareheaded, dripping with perspiration, yet white as
ashes, his clothes awry, the collar of his frieze ulster torn away, and
a strip of red flannel lining exposed.
It was Paul Ritson.
The police-sergeants hurried up with the re-enforcement of two porters
to recover their man. But he was quiet enough now. He did not stir a
muscle when they handcuffed him. He looked around with vague, vacant
eyes, hardly seeming to realize where he was or what was being done with
him. His frenzy was gone.
They led him down the platform. Hugh Ritson was standing on the spot
where Greta had left him one minute before. When the company neared that
spot the prisoner stopped. He looked across at Hugh Ritson in silence,
and for an instant the dazed look died off his face. Then he turned his
head aside, and allowed himself to be led quietly away.