That she responded with angry and offensive words was no sign that she did not feel my words to be true. Her face grew very white as the train began to slow into the terminus. I expect I was pale too. I know I felt faint, and trembled all over as I rose and grasped Agneta's arm, determined that she should not slip away. As we glided past an array of porters, I caught sight of Ralph Marshman peering eagerly into each compartment. The next moment he saw Agneta, and, darting forward, opened the door and helped her out almost before the train stopped. He looked amazed as I sprang after her and clung to her side.
"You here!" he faltered, and his brow grew dark. "What is the meaning of this?"
"It means that I have come to look after my cousin!" I said boldly.
"It is very kind of you," he said sarcastically; "but she needs your care no longer. I will take care of her now."
"Where she goes I go too," was all I said as I tightened my grasp of her arm, in spite of her efforts to shake me off.
"But this is absurd!" he said, and went on to make angry and rude remarks, which had no more effect on me than if I had been deaf, so firmly strong was my resolve. He even laid his hand on my arm and tried by force to separate me from my cousin, but I was able to resist the attempt, and he could not do more without making a scene amid the crowd of passengers now upon the platform.
We moved toward the exit, I clinging to Agneta's left arm, and Marshman walking on the other side of her. Suddenly she uttered a low cry of dismay and drew away from him.
"What is the matter?" he asked.
Why I looked towards him I do not know, but as I did so I saw that Alan Faulkner stood just behind him, and was gazing at me with astonished eyes. It was only for a moment that I saw him. A mist passed before my eyes and my head grew dizzy. When I looked again he had vanished in the crowd, and so had Ralph Marshman.
But it was not the sight of Alan Faulkner that had startled Agneta. Some one else was claiming her attention. An elderly gentleman, spare and trim in appearance and of dignified demeanour, had laid his hand on her shoulder and was gazing at her with wrath and indignation in his eyes.