now for a long
time. She couldn't ha' stood about here for many minutes; if she had
I must ha' seen her.'

I staggered away from him, and passed and repassed the spot many
times. Then I extended my beat about the neighbouring streets,
loitering at every corner where a basket-girl or a flower-girl might
be likely to stand. But no trace of her was to be seen. Meantime the
rain had ceased.

All the frightful stories that I had heard or read of the kidnapping
of girls came pouring into my mind, till my blood boiled and my knees
trembled. Imagination was stinging me to life's very core. Every few
minutes I would pass the theatre, and look towards the portico.

The night wore on, and I was unconscious how the time passed. It was
not till daybreak that I returned to my hotel, pale, weary, bent.

I threw myself upon my bed: it scorched me.

I could not think. At present I could only see--see what? At one
moment a squalid attic, the starlight shining through patched
window-panes upon a lonely mattress, on which a starving girl was
lying; at another moment a cellar damp and dark, in one corner of
which a youthful figure was crouching; and then (most intolerable of
all!) a flaring gin-palace, where, among a noisy crowd, a face was
looking wistfully on, while coarse and vulgar men were clustering
with cruel, wolfish eyes around a beggar-girl. This I saw and
more--a thousand things more.

It was insupportable. I rose and again paced the street.

When I called upon my mother she asked me anxious questions as to
what had ailed me the previous night. Seeing, however, that I
avoided replying to them, she left me after a while in peace.

'Fancy,' said my aunt, who was writing a letter at a little desk
between two windows,--'fancy an Aylwin pulling the check-string, and
then, with ladies in the carriage and the rain pouring--'

During that day how many times I passed in front of the theatre I
cannot say; but at last I thought the very men in the shops must be
observing me. Again, though I half poisoned myself with my drug, I
passed a sleepless night. The next night was passed in almost the
same manner as the previous one.

II

From this time I felt working within me a great change. A horrible
new thought got entire possession of me. Wherever I went I could
think of nothing but--the curse. I scorned the monstrous idea of a
curse, and yet I was always thinking about it. I was always seeking
Winifred--always speculating o