“Dick, in half-an-hour I want a jingle. I’ve got to go to Rasselas to meet the eight train. I’ll drive myself.”
“All right, Miss Katherine,” he said, looking at her with affection. “ ’Twill be a wild night, I’m thinkin’. Workin’ up wild.”
“Twenty minutes, Dick,” she nodded to him, and was off again. She crossed the road, opened the little wicket gate that broke into the shrubbery, found her way on to the lawn, and there, under the oak, was Philip, waiting for her. As she came up to him she felt the first spurt of rain upon her cheek. The long lighted windows of the house were watching them; she drew under the shadow of the tree.
“Phil,” she whispered, her hand on his arm, “there isn’t a moment to lose. I’ve arranged everything. We must catch the eight o’clock train at Rasselas. We shall be in London by twelve. I shall go to Rachel Seddon’s. We can be married by Special Licence to-morrow.”
She had thought of it so resolutely that she did not realise that it was new to him. He gasped, stepping back from her.
“My dear Katie! What are you talking about?”
“Oh, there isn’t any time,” she went on impatiently. “If you don’t come I go alone. It will be the same thing in the end. I saw it all this afternoon. Things can’t go on. I understood Mother. I know what she’s determined to do. We must escape or it will be too late. Even to-morrow it may be. I won’t trust myself if I stay; I’m afraid even to see Mother again, but I know I’m right. We have only a quarter of an hour. That suit will do, and of course you mustn’t have a bag or anything. There’s that cousin of yours in the Adelphi somewhere. You can go to him. We must be at the ‘Three Pilchards’ in a quarter of an hour, and go separately, of course, or someone may stop us....”
But he drew back. “No, no, no,” he said. “Katie, you’re mad! Do you think I’m going to let you do a thing like this? What do you suppose I’m made of? Why, if we were to go off now they’d never forgive you, they’d throw you off—”
“Why, of course,” she broke in impatiently, “that’s exactly why we’ve got to do it. You proposed it to me yourself once, and I refused because I didn’t understand what our staying here meant. But I do now—it’s all settled, I tell you, Phil, and there’s only ten minutes. It’s the last chance. If we miss that train we shall never escape from Mother, from Anna, from anyone. Oh! I know it! I know it!”
She scarcely realised her words; she was tugging at his sleeve, trying to drag him with her.