"Going to see Min! Going to see Min!
Going to see Min, without delay!
Going to see Min! Going to see Min!
Soon! Soon!! Soon!!"
The last bars chiming in when the buffers joined the chorus with a
"jolt, jolt, jolt."
As the train glided, at length--after some six hours of reeling and
bumping and puffing along, the railway nymphs never slackening their
song for an instant, into the Euston-square station--I saw the kind
vicar and dear little Miss Pimpernell awaiting me on the platform.
It was just like their usual kindness to come and meet me thus!
I had telegraphed to them from Liverpool, telling them the time when I
might hope to be in London; and, there they were to the minute, although
I had never expected them, having only informed them of my coming, in
order that they might let my darling know that I was on my way to her.
I jumped out of the carriage before it stopped, in defiance of all the
company's bye-laws; and, advanced to clasp their outstretched hands.
But--
What was it, that I could read in the grave kind face of the one, the
glad yet sorrowful eyes of the other, before a word had passed on either
side? What was it, that congealed the flood of joyful questionings,
with which I went forward to meet them, in an icy lump pressing down
upon my brain; and, that snapped a chord in my heart that has never
vibrated since?
Min was dead!