“A thousand pardons, Morlache,” said Jekyl, from without; “but when I followed you to the 'Pitti,' I left a young lady here, has she gone away, or is she still here?”
“I never saw her,” said Morlache. “She must have left before I returned.”
“Thanks, good-bye,” said Jekyl; and his quick foot was heard ascending the stairs again.
“The night air grows chilly,” said the Abbe, as he arose and shut the window; and the boatmen, mistaking the sound for a summons to approach, pulled up to the spot.
With a sudden spring Kate bounded into the boat, while yet some distance off, and hurriedly said, “To the stairs beside the Santa Trinita.”
The clink of money, as she took out her purse, made the brief command intelligible, and they shot down the stream with speed.
“Do not speak of me,” said she, covering her face with her kerchief as she stepped from the boat; and a gold Napoleon enforced the caution.
It was now night, the lamps were all lighted, and the streets crowded by that bustling throng of population whose hours of business or pleasure commence when day has closed. A thin drizzling rain was falling, and the footway was wet and muddy. Dressed in the height of fashion, all her attire suited to a carriage, Kate set out to walk homeward, with a heart sinking from terror. Many a time in her condition of poverty, with patched and threadbare cloak, had she travelled the dark road from Lichtenthal to Baden after nightfall, fearless and undismayed, no dread of danger nor of insult occurring to her happy spirit, the “Gute nacht” of some homeward-bound peasant the only sound that saluted her. But now, she was no longer in the secluded valley of the great Vaterland; her way led through the crowded thoroughfares of a great city, with all its crash and noise and movement.
If, in her wild confusion, she had no thought for each incident of the morning, her mind was full of “self-accusings.” How explain to Lady Hester her long absence, and her return alone and on foot? Her very maid, Nina, might arraign her conduct, and regard her with distrust and suspicion. How should she appear in Jekyl's eyes, who already knew her secret? and, lastly, what answer return to her poor father's letter, that letter which was the cause of all her misfortunes?
“I will tell him everything,” said she to herself, as she went along. “I will detail the whole events of this morning, and he shall see that my failure has not come of lukewarmness. I will also strive to show him the nature of my position, and let him know the full extent of the sacrifice he would exact from me. If he persist, what then? Is it better to go back and share the poverty I cannot alleviate?