Twenty times during those three hours did she compare the clock with her watch, and found they moved on unvaryingly together.
At last the hour for the departure of the train arrived; and seated in the car, she was soon flying at express speed on the way towards her home.

"How much sooner does the other train arrive than we ?" she asked of the conductor.
"Two hours and a half, miss," replied he, courteously; "we gain a half-hour upon them." "A half-hour--that is something gained," thought she; "I may reach my father before that man.

Can he be what I suspect ?" On they went--thirty--forty--fifty miles an hour, yet she thought it slow.
Dashing by villages, through meadows, over bridges,--rattling, screaming, puffing, on their way to the city of New York.

In due time they arrived at the ferry, and after crossing the river were in the city itself.

Lizzie took the first carriage that came to hand, and was soon going briskly through the streets towards her father's house.