Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

23. CHAPTER XXIII: THE LAST DAY AT BELTON (continued)

'People do not like to put themselves forward on such occasions,' said Will.

'People there are no people. No one ever had so few to care for them as I have. And now But never mind; I mean to do very well, and I shall do very well.' Belton would not take advantage of her in her sadness, and they reached the station at Taunton almost without another word.

Of course they had to wait there for half an hour, and of course the waiting was very tedious. To Will it was very tedious indeed, as he was not by nature good at waiting. To Clara, who on this occasion sat perfectly still in the waiting-room, with her toes on the fender before the fire, the evil of the occasion was not so severe. 'The man would take two hours for the journey, though I told him an hour and a half would be enough,' said Will, querulously.

'But we might have had an accident.'

'An accident! What accident? People don't have accidents every day.'

At last the train came and they started. Clara, though she had with her her best friend I may almost say the friend whom in the world she loved the best did not have an agreeable journey. Belton would not talk; but as he made no attempt at reading, Clara did not like to have recourse to the book which she had in her travelling-bag. He sat opposite to her, opening the window and shutting it as he thought she might like it, but looking wretched and forlorn. At Swindon he brightened up for a moment under the excitement of getting her something to eat, but that relaxation lasted only for a few minutes. Alter that he relapsed again into silence till the train had passed Slough and he knew that in another half-hour they would be in London. Then he leant over her and spoke.

'This will probably be the last opportunity I shall have of saying a few words to you alone.'

'I don't know that at all, Will.'