She ran on breathlessly, and like one insane.

Her mind was, indeed, for the time, gone; and had a river flowed before her way, she would have plunged into an escape from a world that seemed too narrow to hold a father and his child.
But just as she turned the corner of a street that led into the more public thoroughfares, she felt her arm grasped, and a voice called out her name in surprised and startled accents.
"Heavens, Mrs.Butler! Alice! What do I see?
What is the matter ?" "Oh, sir, save me!--you are a good man--a great man--save me--he is returned!" "He! who?
Mr.Butler ?" said the banker (for that gentleman it was) in a changed and trembling voice.
"No, no--ah, not he!--I did not say _he_--I said my father--my, my--ah--look behind--look behind--is he coming ?" "Calm yourself, my dear young friend--no one is near.

I will go and reason with your father.

No one shall harm you--I will protect you.

Go back--go back, I will follow--we must not be seen together." And the tall banker seemed trying to shrink into a nutshell.
"No, no," said Alice, growing yet paler, "I cannot go back." "Well, then, just follow me to the door--your servant shall get you your bonnet, and accompany you to my house, where you can wait till I return.