in.
Then she gave a sudden start and looked up. An electric light on the
platform made his face quite plain. She knew him at once. She did not
make a sound, but rose with a sudden stealthy motion like that of a
wild, hunted thing who leaves its covert for farther flight. But
Wollaston laid his hand on her shoulder and forced her gently back to
her seat. There was no one besides themselves on the platform. They
were quite alone.

"Don't be afraid," he said. But Maria, looking up at him, fairly
chattered with terror. Her lips were open, she made inarticulate
noises like a frightened little monkey. Her eyes dilated. This seemed
to her incredibly monstrous, that in fleeing she should have come to
that from which she fled. All at once the species of mental coma in
which she had been cleared away, and she saw herself and the horrible
situation in which her flight had placed her. The man looked down at
her with the utmost kindness, concern, and pity.

"Don't be afraid," he said again; but Maria continued to look at him
with that cowering, hunted look.

"Where are you going?" asked Wollaston, and suddenly his voice became
masterful. He realized that there was something strange, undoubtedly,
about all this.

"I don't know," Maria said, dully.

"You don't know?"

"No, I don't."

Maria raised her head and looked down the track. "I am going on the
train," said she, with another wild impulse.

"What train?"

"The next train."

"The next train to where?"

"The next train to Springfield," said Maria, mentioning the first
city which came into her mind.

"What are you going to Springfield for so late? Have you friends
there?"

"No," said Maria, in a hopeless voice.

Wollaston sat down beside her. He took one of her little, cold hands,
and held it in spite of a feeble struggle on her part to draw it
away. "Now, see here, Maria," he said, "I know there is something
wrong. What is it?"

His tone was compelling. Maria looked straight ahead at the gloomy
fringe of woods, and answered, in a lifeless voice, "I heard you were
coming."

"And that is the reason you were going away?"

"Yes."

"See here, Maria," said Wollaston, eagerly, "upon my honor I did not
know myself until this very afternoon that you were one of the
teachers in the Westbridge Academy. If I had known I would have
refused the position, although my mother was very anxious for me to
accept it. I would refuse it now if it were not too late, but I
prom