The Argosy — page 357: what you’re looking at

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

328 The White Wiich. the seat in readiness to give her. Ah, he felt safe now: he should see her, touch her, converse with her once again: she could not escape him. Worn out by the exertions of the previous day, by the sleepless and tormenting night, and by these later efforts to which his physical strength was still unequal, he leant back in the cab, and before many minutes were over he had fallen into so deep a sleep as to be almost like insensibility. He woke with a start, and for some moments could not tell where he was, or how he came there. Then he found that he was alone; but a strong sense lay upon him that Mary had been in the cab, that her head had rested for an instant on his shoulder, that her lips had touched his. ‘‘I must have dreamt it,” he thought to himself: but he could not find the note and could not see the handkerchief. The whistle of a railway engine sounded close to him, and looking out into the dusk of the closing day, he saw that he was at the station. The cabman came to the window and touched his hat. “ Train’s comin’ up now, sir.” ‘What train P” ‘The Victoria train, sir. The lady said I was to call you when it came up. You were sound asleep, sir: you had been ill lately, she sald.” . ‘* Where is the lady ?” ‘« She walked on here to the station to catch the last train, sir, and told me to bring the cab gently in time for the next.” Godfrey put some money into the man’s hand, was helped out by him, and into a carriage of the up-train. He felt so ill when he reached Victoria, as to give up all thought of further adventure that night, and drove straight home, miserable, broken-down, and cut to the heart by his disappointment. It was only when he was going to bed later that he found a piece of folded paper in his waistcoat pocket. Opening it, he saw the following words, faintly written on it in pencil in Mary’s hand- Writing : ‘I had determined not to see you again, but Heaven has been merciful and has brought me to you without my will. I am sitting by your side as I write this. Oh, how weak and worn you look !—and all for my sake! I haveread the letter that lay by you, addressed to me. You ask to see me, but it must not be. I am not equal to it, neither would it answer any purpose. I have fallen—long since now—inito a hopeless path of trouble and embarrassment, and neither you nor anybody else can extricate me from it, But the best that can be done will be done; believe that, and do not be anxious for me. Dear Godfrey, forgive me for all I have cost you, the sorrow and the pain ; it is as bitter—yes, I will say it—for me as for you. I have kissed your lips, here as I sit; the only lips of man that mine will ever press ; and I have looked at your face asI shall look at it sleeping or waking till I die. Good-bye, Godfrey.” GEomicbooks.co