There is another link between her hands and mine.'
'You may reserve that point for your defence on your trial,' rejoined
the magistrate. 'There is quite sufficient evidence for your
committal.'
There was already a movement to let Dolores be taken away by her uncle
and aunt, so as to spare her from any reproach or impertinence that
Flinders might launch at her. She was like some one moving in a dream,
glad that her aunt should hold her hand as if she were a little child,
saying, as they came out into the street, 'Very clearly and steadily
done, Dolly! Wasn't it, Uncle Regie?'
'Yes,' he said, absently. 'We must look out, or we shan't catch the
4.50 train.'
He almost threw them into a cab, and made the driver go his quickest,
so that, after all, they had full ten minutes to spare. It made
Dolores sick at heart to go near the waiting and refreshment-rooms
where she and Constance had spent all that time with Flinders; but she
could not bear to say so before her uncle, and he was bent on getting
some food for Lady Merrifield.
'Not soup, Regie; there might not be time to swallow it. A glass of
milk for us each, please; we can drink that at once, and anything solid
that we can take with us. I am sure your mouth must be dry, my dear.'
Very dry it was, and Dolores gladly swallowed the milk, and found, when
seated in the train, that she was really hungry enough to eat her full
share of the sandwiches and buns which the colonel had brought in with
him; and then she sat resting against her aunt, closed her eyes, and
half dozed in the rattle of the train, not moving in the pause at the
stations, but quite conscious that Colonel Mohun said, 'Not a spark of
feeling for anybody, not even for that man! As hard as a stone!'
'For shame, Regie!' said her aunt.
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