The distressing fear that all had not gone well with Grace flooded his brain with misgivings and feverish doubts.

A clock in a shop window told him it was nearly ten o'clock.

He was cursing himself for permitting her to rush off alone in a night like this, into a quarter that reeked with uncertainty and disorder.

Vague horrors presented themselves to his distressed mind; calamity stared at him from the mouth of every dark alley; outrage, crime, misfortune, danced in every shadow.

As for himself, he was a sorry sight and enough to frighten Grace into convulsions at one glance.