She dreaded the prospect of another long day spent at Brennerstadt. It was the day of the diamond draw, too. The place would be a seething tumult. She was so unutterably tired. She thought with a weary longing of Blue Hill Farm. At least she would find a measure of peace there, though healing were denied her. This place had become hateful to her, an inferno of vice and destruction. She yearned to leave it.
Something of this yearning she betrayed on the following morning when Burke told her that he was making arrangements to leave by the evening train for Ritzen.
"Can't we go sooner?" she said.
He looked at her as if surprised by the question. "There is a train at midday," he said. "But it is not a good time for travelling."
"Oh, let us take it!" she said feverishly. "Please let us take it!
We might get back to the farm by to-night then."
He had sent his horse back to Ritzen the previous day in the care of a man he knew, so that both their animals would be waiting for them.
"Do you want to get back?" said Burke.
"Oh, yes—yes! Anything is better than this." She spoke rapidly, almost passionately. "Let us go! Do let us go!"
"Very well," said Burke. "If you wish it."
He paused at the door of the office a few minutes later, when they descended, to tell the girl there that they were leaving at noon.