If I did not decide instantaneously, and decide aright, it would have been better for me never to have tried this chance of escape.
But I did not linger another moment.

I could almost believe an angel took me by the hand, and led me.

I darted straight across the muddy road, getting my thin slippers wet through at once, ran for a few yards, and then turned sharply round a corner into a street at the end of which I saw the cheery light of shop-windows, all in a glow in spite of the rain.

On I fled breathlessly, unhindered by any passer-by, for the rain was still falling, though more lightly.

As I drew nearer to the shop-windows, an omnibus-driver, seeing me run toward him, pulled up his horses in expectation of a passenger.