The Dynamiter | Page 6

distant scenes, till he was
recalled, upon a sudden, by a wall that blocked his further progress.
This street, whose name I have forgotten, is no thoroughfare.
He was not the first who had wandered there that morning; for as he
raised his eyes with an agreeable deliberation, they alighted on the
figure of a girl, in whom he was struck to recognise the third of the
incongruous fugitives. She had run there, seemingly, blindfold; the wall
had checked her career: and being entirely wearied, she had sunk upon
the ground beside the garden railings, soiling her dress among the
summer dust. Each saw the other in the same instant of time; and she,
with one wild look, sprang to her feet and began to hurry from the
scene.
Challoner was doubly startled to meet once more the heroine of his

adventure, and to observe the fear with which she shunned him. Pity
and alarm, in nearly equal forces, contested the possession of his mind;
and yet, in spite of both, he saw himself condemned to follow in the
lady's wake. He did so gingerly, as fearing to increase her terrors; but,
tread as lightly as he might, his footfalls eloquently echoed in the
empty street. Their sound appeared to strike in her some strong emotion;
for scarce had he begun to follow ere she paused. A second time she
addressed herself to flight; and a second time she paused. Then she
turned about, and with doubtful steps and the most attractive
appearance of timidity, drew near to the young man. He on his side
continued to advance with similar signals of distress and bashfulness.
At length, when they were but some steps apart, he saw her eyes brim
over, and she reached out both her hands in eloquent appeal.
'Are you an English gentleman?' she cried.
The unhappy Challoner regarded her with consternation. He was the
spirit of fine courtesy, and would have blushed to fail in his devoirs to
any lady; but, in the other scale, he was a man averse from amorous
adventures. He looked east and west; but the houses that looked down
upon this interview remained inexorably shut; and he saw himself,
though in the full glare of the day's eye, cut off from any human
intervention. His looks returned at last upon the suppliant. He remarked
with irritation that she was charming both in face and figure, elegantly
dressed and gloved; a lady undeniable; the picture of distress and
innocence; weeping and lost in the city of diurnal sleep.
'Madam,' he said, 'I protest you have no cause to fear intrusion; and if I
have appeared to follow you, the fault is in this street, which has
deceived us both.' An unmistakable relief appeared upon the lady's face.
'I might have guessed it!' she exclaimed. 'Thank you a thousand times!
But at this hour, in this appalling silence, and among all these staring
windows, I am lost in terrors--oh, lost in them!' she cried, her face
blanching at the words. 'I beg you to lend me your arm,' she added with
the loveliest, suppliant inflection. 'I dare not go alone; my nerve is
gone--I had a shock, oh, what a shock! I beg of you to be my escort.'
'My dear madam,' responded Challoner heavily, 'my arm is at your
service.'
'She took it and clung to it for a moment, struggling with her sobs; and
the next, with feverish hurry, began to lead him in the direction of the

city. One thing was plain, among so much that was obscure: it was
plain her fears were genuine. Still, as she went, she spied around as if
for dangers; and now she would shiver like a person in a chill, and now
clutch his arm in hers. To Challoner her terror was at once repugnant
and infectious; it gained and mastered, while it still offended him; and
he wailed in spirit and longed for release.
'Madam,' he said at last, 'I am, of course, charmed to be of use to any
lady; but I confess I was bound in a direction opposite to that you
follow, and a word of explanation--'
'Hush!' she sobbed, 'not here--not here!'
The blood of Challoner ran cold. He might have thought the lady mad;
but his memory was charged with more perilous stuff; and in view of
the detonation, the smoke and the flight of the ill- assorted trio, his
mind was lost among mysteries. So they continued to thread the maze
of streets in silence, with the speed of a guilty flight, and both thrilling
with incommunicable terrors. In time, however, and above all by their
quick pace of walking, the pair began to rise to firmer spirits; the lady
ceased to peer about the corners; and Challoner, emboldened