Page:Anthony Hope - Rupert of Hentzau.djvu/38

 beg the station-master's company on my walk; but, besides being ashamed to exhibit a timidity apparently groundless, I was reluctant to draw attention to myself in any way. I would not for the world have it supposed that I carried anything of value.

"Well, there's no help for it," said I; and, buttoning my heavy coat about me, I took my handbag and stick in one hand, and asked my way to the hotel. My misfortunes had broken down the station-master's indifference, and he directed me in a sympathetic tone.

"Straight along the road, sir," said he, "between the poplars for hard on half a mile; then the houses begin, and your hotel is in the first square you come to on the right."

I thanked him curtly (for I had not quite forgiven his earlier incivility) and started on my walk, weighed down by my big coat and the handbag. When I left the lighted station yard I realised that the evening had fallen very dark, and the shade of the tall lank trees intensified the gloom. I could hardly see my way, and went timidly, with frequent stumbles over the uneven stones of the road. The lamps were dim, few, and widely separated; so far as company was concerned, I might have been a thousand miles from an inhabited house. In spite of myself the thought of danger persistently assailed my