The wheels spun round, the lights of the gas-lamps flashed dully in through the blurred windows, and the man shrinking back among the cushions clenched his teeth and stared out at the night, painting with vivid fancy on the curtain of the dark the hideous scene from which he was flying.
[II.]
The Recluse
The rapidity or slowness with which time passes depends entirely upon the feelings, and although the drive to Hampstead occupied only an hour, it seemed to Adrian Lancaster as if centuries had passed since he left his chambers. Between his past life of carelessness and ease and this one of agonizing feelings, a great gulf had widened which he knew would ever more separate him from his former state. A short time ago, he was a pleasure-loving man, rich, honoured and courted, but now he was a hunted fugitive—a social outcast, scorned of all men and pitied by none. The shock had been so great that he did not yet understand his position, but lay back among the cushions in a kind of dull apathy, the whole journey seeming to him to be a kind of hideous nightmare.
Suddenly the cab stopped, and the trapdoor in the roof was opened by the driver.
"This is Hampstead, sir," he said in a hoarse voice, "and the limit of the radius."
"Very good," replied Adrian dully, "I will get out here."
He jumped out on to the sodden ground, turning up the collar of his coat, for the rain was still coming down heavily, and gave the cabman ten shillings in gold.
"I have no change, sir," began the driver. "I—"
"It doesn't matter," said Adrian, waving his hand. "Good night," and he tramped off into the darkness, while the cabman, with a muttered expression of thanks, drove back to town.