Something had to be done. She must find some place where she could sit down. Where was she to find it?
For a while she could feel her limbs trembling; but gradually the heavy thudding of her pulses quieted; nobody molested her; nobody had followed her. That she was quite lost did not matter; she had also lost this man who had denied her, somewhere in the depths of the confusion behind her. That was all that mattered—escape from him, from the terrible woman who had struck him and reviled him.
With an effort she checked her thoughts and struggled for self-command. Somewhere in the city there 119 must be a railroad station from which a train would take her home.
With the thought came the desperate longing for flight, and a rush of tears that almost choked her. Nothing mattered now except her mother’s arms; the rest was a nightmare, the horror of a dream which still threatened, still clutched at her with shadowy and spectral menace.
For a moment or two she stood there on the curb, her eyes closed, fighting for self-control, forcing her disorganized brain to duty.
Somebody must help her to find a railroad station and a train. That gradually became clear to her. But when she realised that, a young man sauntered up beside her and looked at her so intently that her calmness gave way and she turned her head sharply to conceal the starting tears.
“Hello, girlie,” he said. “Got anythin’ on tonight?”
With head averted, she stood there, rigid, dumb, her tear-drenched eyes fixed on the park; and after one or two jocose observations the young man became discouraged and went away. But he had thrust the fear of strangers deep into her heart; and now she dared not ask any man for information. However, when two young women passed she found sufficient courage to accost them, asking the direction of the railroad station from which trains departed for Gayfield.
The women, who were young and brightly coloured in plumage, displayed a sympathetic interest at once.
“Gayfield?” repeated the blonder of the two. “Gee, dearie, I never heard of that place.”