Home to the hearts that loved her first, and would
love her to the end.
At last the train steamed into the little station from which she had
first gone to the great city, and everything looked just the same as
upon that night, when she had stolen across the moor to run away where
she expected to hide her shame, and try and redeem that one mistaken
impulse, which had been so thoughtlessly indulged, and so terribly paid
for in suffering and tears. The station-master looked at her keenly as
she passed. She seemed so frail and weak looking to be abroad in such a
night; but she passed on and out upon the country road that ran across
the moor, where the darkness always lay thickest, and where the terrors
of the timid were greatest, and the storms raged fiercest.
On she battled, already feeling weak and tired; but always the thought
of home waiting for her impelled her onward. Home was waiting over
there--waiting just two miles off, where she could see the twinkling of
the lights from the pithead at which she had worked, and where she had
been so happy at the dreams conjured by six and sixpence per week. Down
rushed the wind from the hills, careering along the wide moor, driving
the rain and hail in front, as if he would burst the barriers of the
world and go free.
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