She opened her eyes with a confused feeling--the train was slackening speed, and Micky stood in the doorway.
Esther rose to her feet--her limbs were trembling, and her head ached dully.
"You'd better fasten your coat," he said casually. "It will be cold on the boat."
She looked at him half fearfully. Was this the same man who had followed her from Enmore with such passionate haste and eagerness? He was perfectly undisturbed now at all events, he seemed even to avoid looking at her.
When they got on board he found her a chair on the leeside of the boat.
"I don't know. I've never been any distance until yesterday."
"You'd better stay here; it's preferable to that stuffy cabin."
But he left her alone almost the whole time, though she knew that he walked up and down close to where she sat. She could see the glow of his cigar through the darkness and hear the slow sound of his steps.
She tried to think things over quietly as she sat there, but everything seemed so unreal, and most of all the fact that Micky had once professed to love her.
In the train he left her to herself till they reached London. He was sure she "did not want to be bothered," he said, and he was going to smoke.
Esther felt a little pang of disappointment. It seemed a long time till the train steamed fussily into Charing Cross; and the old weary feeling of loneliness had settled again upon her heart by the time Micky came to the door of the carriage.
"June is sure to be somewhere about," he said laconically. "Will you stay here while I see if I can find her?"
She felt afraid of June's kindly quizzical eyes; June who knew why she had run away to Paris, and what had been awaiting her there.
She touched Micky's arm--the eyes she raised to his face were troubled.
"When shall I see you again?" she asked falteringly.
"Why do you want to see me again?" he questioned gravely. "You can have no use for me--after this!"
Esther flushed painfully. Through the crowd she saw June pushing towards them. This was the last moment she would have with Micky, she knew, and in a flash something seemed to tell her what this man had meant to her during the last two terrible days.
"Oh," she said tremblingly, "if you only would let me thank you."