The Craze of Christina — page 174: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

170 The Craze of Christina. your arriving here after I have left, I am writ- ing this to ask you to remain at this hotel until you hear from me. Of course if you do come it will prove to me to a great extent, if not wholly, that you are in earnest, in which case I feel bound by my promise to let you know my whereabouts. I shall therefore write imme- diately to you from my first stopping-place, which I cannot yet decide upon, and you can follow me if you wish. Yours truly, ‘CHRISTINA PRatTT.”’ Clifford remained sitting ona bench in the hall staring blankly at vacancy. It was a crushing blow not to find her here, but there was nothing hopeless about the terms of her letter, and he strove to find consolation in the fact that her doubts were not with regard to her own feel- ings, which she did not mention, but entirely on account of his, which, of course, were all right. He had seemingly only to persevere in order to win her, and of course he was going to persevere; the only horrible doubt that now crept into his mind was as to whether he would have time enough for his persevering. He had left Essel- ton on Monday, the day before yesterday, and it was now Wednesday; for unluckily he had stupidly wasted a whole twenty-four hours in London, buying himself a traveling bag, some comicbooks: ceo