He drove to his destination from the Docks; and then, dismissing the
vehicle, set forth to walk back southward, toward the New Road.
He was not well acquainted with the district; and his attention wandered
further and further away from the scene around him as he went on. His
thoughts, roused by the prospect of seeing his sister again, had led his
memory back to the night when he had parted from her, leaving the house
on foot. The spell so strangely laid on him, in that past time, had kept
its hold through all after-events. The face that had haunted him on the
lonely road had haunted him again on the lonely sea. The woman who
had followed him, as in a dream, to his sister's door, had followed
him--thought of his thought, and spirit of his spirit--to the deck of
his ship. Through storm and calm on the voyage out, through storm and
calm on the voyage home, she had been with him. In the ceaseless turmoil
of the London streets, she was with him now. He knew what the first
question on his lips would be, when he had seen his sister and her boys.
"I shall try to talk of something else," he thought; "but when Lizzie
and I am alone, it will come out in spite of me.
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