Her own Way by Eglanton Thorne

THERE was indeed someone waiting for Juliet when she arrived at Folkestone station, but it was not Dora Felgate nor anyone belonging to her family, since they had no expectation of seeing Juliet that day.

Algernon Chalcombe was standing on the platform when the train came but she looked at him for some moments without recognising him, so strangely altered was his appearance; for he had shaved away the silky black moustache which his fingers had been for ever lovingly caressing, and the mouth, unscreened, looked large and coarse. His fine dark eyes were hidden behind smoke-coloured spectacles, and his dress was different from anything Juliet had seen him wear before. The loose-fitting tweed suit, and large, soft felt hat, might have been worn by a German artist, and for such Algernon would have been well content to pass.

"Is it you, Algernon? " Juliet exclaimed, with a start, as he addressed her. "I did not know you. How very strange you look! Why are you wearing those frightful glasses?"

"I have a weakness of the eyes, which compels me to protect them from the awful glare of sunlight on this coast," he said, with a smile. "I am sorry you do not find them becoming; but what a joy that you have arrived, my Juliet! I have been so anxious while I waited. I was afraid your courage would fail you at the last. But now you have got safely away from them all, and are here, my brave darling, all will be well."

"I wish I could think so," said Juliet, with a shiver. "Don't let us talk of it, Algernon. You don't know what it cost me to do it."

"You will never regret it," he said.

But Juliet could not feel that. Already she began to see the act she had committed in its true light, and a dread of the Nemesis which attends all wrong-doing was awaking in her heart.

"Now, what is to be done? " he asked. "We decided that it would be better to cross the Channel from Dover. Shall we go on to Dover at once, or would you like to see something of Folkestone first?"

"Oh, do not let us stay here! " exclaimed Juliet. "I dare not walk about in Folkestone. If I should meet the Felgates, what would they think? " And a deep flush of shame dyed her face. "Besides," she added, in desperation, "you decided that we should go on to Dover at once. You said that we should be married as soon as we got there."

"Yes, yes, dearest; but you know it is too late now for us to be married to-day. So I think it will be best for us to go on by to-night's boat to Paris, and have the ceremony performed there to-morrow morning."

"Can it be done as easily there? " asked Juliet. "Oh, as easily as possible. We only have to go before the British consul."

Juliet asked no more about it. She knew positively nothing of the legal preliminaries to marriage. She had indeed previously given Algernon a large sum of money, with which it was understood that he was to purchase a special marriage licence and meet other expenses incidental to the ceremony; but she was content to leave all the details in his hands.

On inquiry, it was found that there was a train for Dover in half an hour. Juliet's trunk was claimed and re-labelled; then she wrote with pencil on a postcard she had brought with her, and posted it to her mother, after which, they paced the platform till the train came up. Juliet was miserable as she waited; at every turn she dreaded to be confronted by the astonished faces of the Felgates. The change in Algernon Chalcombe's appearance filled her with vague uneasiness, though it did not strike her that it was assumed as a disguise.

It was a relief when she found herself in the train and moving out of the station; but in a few minutes, she had to alight again, this time at Dover Pier.

They found the station in a state of bustle and confusion. The boat from Calais had come in rather behind time, and its passengers, eager and flurried, were streaming up from the quay to the station. As she and her companion made their way through the crowd, alike anxious to escape observation, Juliet suddenly encountered the hard, keen gaze of Mrs. Hayes, who was advancing, followed by a porter burdened with numerous small packages.

"Oh, there is Mrs. Hayes! " she exclaimed, in a low tone of dismay.

"Where? " he asked quickly. "Never mind. Come this way, Juliet. Sharp! " And opening the door of a waiting room, he hurried her inside and out by another door into a road at the back of the station. A few minutes' sharp walking took them beyond the stir of the station.

Juliet was greatly agitated. "Oh, Algernon, she saw me! I am certain that she recognised me! And she will tell mother! Oh, what shall I do?"

"What does it matter? " he asked. "She would not recognise me. For aught she knows, we have a perfect right to be together. I might be your cousin."

"Oh, she knows I have no cousins," replied Juliet. "Hannah and Salome have some in Scotland, but I have none."