Chapter 5: Chapter 5

IV The heat had been painfully oppressive all day, and it was now a close and sultry night. My mother and sister had spoken so many last words, and had begged me to wait another five minutes so many times, that it was nearly midnight when the servant locked the garden-gate behind me. I walked forward a few paces on the shortest way back to London, then stopped and hesitated. The moon was full and broad in the dark blue starless sky, and the broken ground of the heath looked wild enough …