She entered the ticket-office, and inquired when the next train would start. She was told at ten minutes past the hour. This gave her just time enough to get a cup of coffee and a bun at the pastrycook’s stall opposite the office.
When she had partaken of this refreshment that her long walk had made so necessary, she went up to the third-class ticket-window, laid her half sovereign upon the ledge, and enquired of the clerk:
“How far on this line will this money take me?”
Instead of answering her question the clerk regarded her with such a look of suspicion, that she hastened to say:
“I have just lost my father, and have no relations here in London. I wish to go to the north, where I have a friend. I have only twelve shillings and six pence, and I wish to save half-a-crown to buy food, and to go as far as half-a-sovereign will carry me on my way; after that I must walk.”
There were other passengers thronging to the window to be accommodated, and so the clerk hastily drew in the half-sovereign and pushed out a ticket, which she seized as she left the window, and joined the crowd that was hurrying towards the third-class carriages. She had just taken her seat when the train started.
It was the first train, and thus it happened that at the very moment in which good Mrs. Corder discovered the absence of her favorite, Annella was full forty miles from London, flying northward at the rate of forty miles an hour.
As the train rushed onward the wild girl’s spirits rose.
It was a beautiful day in spring; the earth wore its tenderest and freshest green; the sky its softest and clearest blue; and the sun shone out like the smile of God over all nature.
Annella was alone in the world; she had just buried her father, and had not a reliable friend left upon earth; she had but one change of clothing in her parcel, and one-half crown in her purse; she knew not exactly where she was going; where she should eat her next meal, or take her next night’s rest.