"It is impossible now," he
was informed, "but the case should be noted and remembered. If anything
could certainly secure the man an advance, it was the advocacy of
General Surrey"; and so, not quite content, but still satisfied that
Jim's time was in the near future, he went on his way.
As the cars approached Philadelphia his heart beat so fast that it
almost stifled him, and he leaned against the window heavily for air and
support. It was useless to reason with himself, vain to call good
judgment to his counsels and summon wisdom to his aid. This was her
home. Somewhere in this city to which he was so rapidly hastening, she
was moving up and down, had her being, was living and loving. After
these long years his eyes so ached to see her, his heart was so hungry
for her presence, that it seemed to him as though the sheer longing
would call her out of her retreat, on to the streets through which he
must pass, across his path, into the sight of his eyes and reach of his
hand. He had thought that he felt all this before. He found, as the
space diminished between them,--as, perchance, she was but a stone's
throw from his side,--that the pain, and the longing, and the
intolerable desire to behold her once again, increased a hundred-fold.
Eager as he had been a little while before to reach his home, he was
content to remain quietly here now. He laughed at himself as he stepped
into a carriage, and, tired as he was,--for his amputated arm, not yet
thoroughly healed, made him weak and worn,--drove through all the
afternoon and evening, across miles and miles of heated, wearisome
stones, possessed by the idea that somewhere, somehow, he should see
her, he would find her before his quest was done.
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