Then she began to cry, and, without thinking that anybody was listening or watching her, she said out loud:
“What is going to become of me?”
An inspector approached:
“What's the matter?”
The conductor answered, in a bantering tone of voice:
“It's a lady who got left by her husband during the trip.”
The other continued:
“Oh! that's nothing. You go about your business.”
Then he turned on his heels and walked away.
She began to walk straight ahead, too bewildered, too crazed even to understand what had happened to her. Where was she to go? What could she do? What could have happened to him? How could he have made such a mistake? How could he have been so forgetful?