Only one thought far at the back of his mind cropped up now and then to give him comfort.

He was entering on the last lap.

Once get this detestable errand done and he would be a free man, free to go back to the kindly humdrum life from which he should never have strayed.

Never again, he vowed, never again.
Rather would he spend the rest of his days in hydropathics than come within the pale of such horrible adventures.

Romance, forsooth! This was not the mild goddess he had sought, but an awful harpy who battened on the souls of men.
He had some bad minutes as the train passed through the suburbs and along the grimy embankment by which the southern lines enter the city.
But as it rumbled over the river bridge and slowed down before the terminus his vitality suddenly revived.