Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/307

 to his thinking never a train crawled so slow- ly. Every slight slackening of speed got on his nerves. It seemed to him that they were continually pulling up at stations and wait- ing an unconscionable time. Just outside Staines the train stopped, the signals evidently being against them. He thought they would never move on, and only the folly of jumping out and walking prevented him from doing so.

She was there behind the barrier, she and a dozen other women and children. He knew her in spite of the thick veil; he would have felt her presence even if he were blind.

“My dear,” he said.

“Oh, Perseus!”

But her fingers clung to his, and the very hope and agony of life was in the touch. He drew her to him and kissed her through the veil. Behind the veil he saw that her eyes were swimming.

“Oh, my dear,” he whispered as they left the station hand in hand, “I thought I had lost you.”

“Would you be very sorry, Perseus?”

“Andromeda!”

“It might have been better,” she said.

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