The police would watch all those who entered or left the station, but
never would they think to search a carriage into which no one had been
seen to enter. But oh, what a frightful predicament she was in! All
she possessed in the world was a half-crown, scarce enough for her
breakfast. And if she did not find her governess at once she would be
lost utterly, and in Dresden! She choked back the sob. Why couldn't
they let her be? She didn't want to marry any one--that is, just yet.
She didn't want her wings clipped, before she had learned what a fine
thing it was to fly. She was young.
"Oh!"
"What is it?" she said, turning.
"I have something of yours," answered Max, fumbling in his pocket,
grateful for some excuse to break the silence. "You dropped your purse
this morning. Permit me to return it to you. I hadn't the remotest
idea how I was going to return it. In truth, I had just made up my
mind to keep it as a souvenir."
She literally snatched it from his extended hand.
"My purse! My purse! And I thought it was gone for ever!" hugging it
hysterically to her heart. She feverishly tried to unlatch the clasps.
"You need not open it," he said quietly, even proudly, "I had not
thought of looking into it, even to prove your identity."
"Pardon! I did not think. I was so crazy to see it again." She laid
the purse beside her. "You see," with an hysterical catch in her
voice, "all the money I had in the world was in that purse, and I was
running away without any money, and only Heaven knows what misfortunes
were about to befall me. There were, and are, a thousand crowns in the
purse."
"A thousand crowns?"
"In bank-notes. Thank you, thank you! I am so happy!"--clasping her
hands. Then, with a smile as warm as the summer's sun, she added: "You
may--come and sit close beside me. You may even smoke."
Max grew light-headed. This was as near Heaven as he ever expected to
get.
"Open your purse and look into it," he said. "I'm a brute; you are
dying to do so."
"May I?"--shyly.
Then it came into Max's mind, with all the brilliancy of a dynamo
spark, that this was the one girl in all the world, the ideal he had
been searching for; and he wanted to fall at her feet and tell her so.
"Look!" she cried gleefully, holding up the packet of bank-notes.
"I wish," he said boyishly, "that you didn't have any money at all, so
I could help you and feel that you depended upon me."