Dr Paul tried to sleep and couldn't. He believed it was the storm that was keeping him awake, and that his thoughts were the product of his insomnia, but actually his sleeplessness was a result of the thoughts that kept coursing through his mind. 

In just a few more days, he and his wife Elizabeth would be leaving the city for the East. Dr Paul tried to concentrate on that, on all the things that had to be done before he left, but his mind kept returning to the question of Virginia Martin, the scene at the bus station, and her strange hurried departure. 

He wondered why he felt he knew and understood her so well, when actually he knew so very little about her. He wondered why she wanted to lose herself this way, to sever completely the ties that had grown in this little town since she had arrived some weeks ago...