Having found some dense copse-wood by the road-side, and near to
the village, he sat down and waited. The gay, chattering party
soon passed, Ida walking by herself on the opposite side of the
road, with head bowed as if wholly wrapped in her own thoughts. Her
unhappy face appealed to his sympathy even more than her graceful
carriage to his sense of beauty, and he longed to join her and make
such amends as were possible.
He now followed at too great a distance for recognition in the
deepening twilight, and saw the young people enter a confectionery
shop, but observed, with increased uneasiness, that Miss Mayhew
parted from them and went to an adjacent drug-store. She soon
joined the party again, however, and they all apparently started
homeward.
Van Berg at once determined to go to this drug-store and learn, if
possible, if there were anything to confirm the horrible suspicion
that crossed his mind. He remembered that despair and desperate
deeds often went together, and the daily press had taught him how
many people, with warped and ungoverned moral natures, place their
troubles beyond remedy by the supreme folly of self-destruction.
By a considerable detour through a side street, he reached the
store unperceived, and found the druggist rather disquieted himself.
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