They parted at the railway crossing, and Kitty
went gaily up the white dusty road, while M. Vandeloup strolled
leisurely along the street on his way to the Wattle Tree Hotel.
When he arrived he found that Pierre's box had come, and was placed
outside his door, as no one had been brave enough to venture inside,
although Miss Twexby assured them he was unarmed--showing the knife
as a proof.
Gaston, however, dragged the box into the room, and having made
Pierre dress himself in his new clothes, he packed all the rest in a
box, corded it, and put a ticket on it with his name and
destination, then gave the dumb man the balance of his wages. It was
now about six o'clock, so Vandeloup went down to dinner; then
putting Pierre and his box into the cab, stepped in himself and
drove off.
The promise of rain in the afternoon was now fulfilled, and it was
pouring in torrents. The gutters were rivers, and every now and then
through the driving rain came the bluish dart of a lightning flash.
'Bah!' said Vandeloup, with a shiver, as they got out on the station
platform, 'what a devil of a night.'
He made the cab wait for him, and, having got Pierre's ticket, put
him in a second-class carriage and saw that his box was safely
placed in the luggage-van. The station was crowded with people going
and others coming to say goodbye; the rain was beating on the high-
arched tin roof, and the engine at the end of the long train was
fretting and fuming like a living thing impatient to be gone.
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