He went away quickly, as if he were afraid of being kept against his will but outside the door he stood still for a moment with his hand over his eyes before he pulled himself together and went on.
Esther listened to his departing steps with a sinking at her heart.
What had she hoped for? She hardly knew, but she felt as if she had made an overture of friendship that had been kindly but decidedly refused.
Her cheeks burned. It was not what she had expected.
It seemed an eternity till Micky came back again.
"There's a train in half an hour," he told her. "We can get back to town very comfortably. I've wired to June to meet us. She probably came up from Enmore yesterday."
"You ought to be getting ready if we are to catch that train," Micky said. "Would you rather stay till to-morrow? I'm afraid the journey will tire you dreadfully."
"I think I will go in a smoker," he said. He put some magazines and a box of chocolates on the seat; he avoided looking at her. "It's a corridor train so I'll come and see that you are all right occasionally--if I may."
She did not answer; she felt a little chill of disappointment. He had not asked a single question about Raymond, and now he was suggesting that they travel the long journey separately.
"Will you be all right?" he asked awkwardly.
He went away, and presently the train started. Esther looked out of the window and watched the city as it was rapidly left behind.
"I never want to see it again," was the thought in her heart. "I wish I never had seen it."
She felt like a naughty child who has run away from home and is being ignominiously brought back.
Last night seemed like some fevered dream; Raymond Ashton some man of whom she had read in a book or seen in a play.
A phantom lover!--he had not even been that, and once she had wished to die because she had got to be separated from him.
Her eyes fell on her hand--she still wore his ring.
With sudden passion she dragged it from her finger; she let the window down with a run and flung the ring far out into the grey evening. It was the end of a dream; the final uprooting of an illusion.
Esther slept through the long journey fitfully--she was mentally and physically exhausted. She was only thoroughly aroused by people out in the corridor moving about collecting bags and baggage.