decide instantaneously, and
decide aright, it would have been better for me never to have tried this
chance of escape.

But I did not linger another moment. I could almost believe an angel
took me by the hand, and led me. I darted straight across the muddy
road, getting my thin slippers wet through at once, ran for a few yards,
and then turned sharply round a corner into a street at the end of which
I saw the cheery light of shop-windows, all in a glow in spite of the
rain. On I fled breathlessly, unhindered by any passer-by, for the rain
was still falling, though more lightly. As I drew nearer to the
shop-windows, an omnibus-driver, seeing me run toward him, pulled up his
horses in expectation of a passenger. The conductor shouted some name
which I did not hear, but I sprang in, caring very little where it might
carry me, so that I could get quickly enough and far enough out of the
reach of my pursuers. There had been no time to lose, and none was lost.
The omnibus drove on again quickly, and no trace was left of me.

I sat quite still in the farthest corner of the omnibus, hardly able to
recover my breath after my rapid running. I was a little frightened at
the notice the two or three other passengers appeared to take of me, and
I did my best to seem calm and collected. My ungloved hands gave me some
trouble, and I hid them as well as I could in the folds of my dress; for
there was something remarkable about the want of gloves in any one as
well dressed as I was. But nobody spoke to me, and one after another
they left the omnibus, and fresh persons took their places, who did not
know where I had got in. I did not stir, for I determined to go as far
as I could in this conveyance. But all the while I was wondering what I
should do with myself, and where I could go, when it readied its
destination.

There was one trifling difficulty immediately ahead of me. When the
omnibus stopped I should have no small change for paying my fare. There
was an Australian sovereign fastened to my watch-chain which I could
take off, but it would be difficult to detach it while we were jolting
on. Besides, I dreaded to attract attention to myself. Yet what else
could I do?

Before I had settled this question, which occupied me so fully that I
forgot other and more serious difficulties, the omnibus drove into a
station-yard, and every passenger, inside and out, prepared to alight. I
lingered till the last, and sat still till I had unfast