hat the men were exchanging remarks and staring at her and her
father. Surely they suspected something, and why? she wondered. Some of
them came closer and eyed her attentively while pretending not to do so.

Tilly had her purse, and she sent the cabman for the tickets and ordered
him to check her trunk. There was a little waiting-room, and, desiring
more seclusion, she led her father into it. But they were not thus to
escape the stare of the bystanders, for many of them walked past the
door and looked in curiously. One of them wore the uniform of a
policeman, and it seemed as if he were about to address some inquiry to
her, but decided not to do so when he saw the cabman delivering the
tickets and trunk-check to her. The clock on the wall indicated twelve.
Ten minutes to wait. She was beginning to hope that all would be well
when the ticket-seller came from his office and with a piece of chalk
wrote on a blackboard bulletin:

"36 North-bound 15 minutes late."

The time dragged. More curious persons came to the door, stared, and
even paused. The cabman came for his fare. She paid him for the use of
his cab all the morning. "Don't forget," she whispered.

"I won't, miss," he said, comprehendingly, and thereupon she put some
more money into his hand.

"Please, please, don't forget!" she repeated.

She watched him as he walked away, and then she saw the policeman join
him, and the two turned to one side and began to talk earnestly
together.

At last the train came. Through a gaping throng, ever increasing, she
led her father to a seat in one of the coaches. There was only a short
stop, and the train was soon moving again. The relief was great, and a
vast sense of weakness came over her. She felt like crying, but she knew
that would never do. She yearned for the opportunity to confide in some
one. It could not be her mother, for she had never been understood by
her mother. There was one friend who would understand, who had always
understood, and that was Joel Eperson. Joel would be grieved. She was
the wife of another, but that would make no difference to Joel Eperson,
for that he was still faithful to her she did not doubt. She told
herself that she must see Joel at once and get his advice. She could
think of no one else upon whom she could so confidently rely, and she
must go to some one, for all the initiative she had ever possessed
seemed to have been ruthlessly destroyed along with every girlish dream,
hope, an