my heart:
"My dear--my dear!"

Caroline could not keep the tears back any longer. They would come,
and she wiped them away with her fingers as she walked away. But the
singer was evidently roused by applause to an extra effort, for the
voice gained for the moment some of the timbre of her triumphant youth,
and Caroline could hear more and more softly as she went farther off:

When we are old
Some love-words disappear,
But this goes all the way;
"My dear--my dear!"

She did not see the sentimentality of the song because she liked it,
just as she liked the simple love-stories with bright covers; and she
had hardly time to dry her eyes before the band began to play God Save
the King, and the people to surge through the large gates which were
now set open. As soon as she could shut up the pay-box she slipped
away into the darkness of the promenade, to escape the crowd who went
mostly by the high road. A few steps beyond the north exit took her
into absolute solitude, but the rain which was already falling quickly
made her afraid of venturing far along the slippery path. The sea and
sky were all dark--no white breakers on the heavy swell and no stars in
the sky. She felt unutterably sad and deserted, standing there for a
moment before she turned up the little terrace which led to the main
road. But though she told herself that she was going this way because
she had been crying and wished to meet no one, she knew, behind that,
that she was lying to herself. She _had_ to know why she really came
this way, and what she meant to do, because she had an honest soul.

Then she turned round and went up the uneven road between the dark
little houses in the terrace. Only one house still remained lighted
downstairs, though the upper blinds were nearly all illuminated from
within. Caroline's eyes were fixed on that one house as she went
along, and without allowing herself time to think she opened the little
iron gate. Then she paused a moment, glancing up towards the attic
bedroom where the woman with whom Godfrey lodged was already taking off
her tightly curled fringe, and the uncompromising corsets in which she
barricaded herself during the waking hours.

With a long knowledge of Thorhaven ways Caroline gently turned the
front-door handle, and was not surprised to find the door left on the
latch against Godfrey's return. She entered very quietly, tip-toeing
down the passage, and went straight into