Steel sat silent at her
side. The cab was tinkling up Park Lane. The great park on the left, the
great houses on the right, the darkness on the one hand, the lights on
the other, had all the fascination of sharp contrasts--that very
fascination which was Mr. Steel's. Rachel already discovered it in his
face, and divined it in his character, without admitting to herself that
there was any fascination at all. Yet otherwise she would have dropped
rather than have done what she was doing now. The man had cast a spell
upon her; and for the present she did feel safe in his hands. But with
that unmistakable sense of immediate security there mingled a subtler
premonition of ultimate danger, to which Rachel had felt alive from the
first. And this was the keenest stimulus of all.
What was his intention, and what his object? To draw back was to find
out neither; and to say the truth, even if she had not been friendless
and forlorn, Rachel would have been very sorry to draw back now.
The raw air in her face had greatly revived her; the sights and lights
of the town were still new and dear to her; she had come back to the
world with a vengeance, to a world of incident and interest, with an
adventure ready waiting to take her out of her past self!
But it was only her companion's silence which enabled Rachel to realize
her strange fortune at this stage, and she had to put her question
point-blank before she obtained any answer at all.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88