t the Blanket Club on Mondays, so I
didn't even tell her I was coming, but I did bring Maudie, only we got
late somehow and there wasn't time to bring her round, so I left her
on the other side in the booking office."

"Here's twopence to get her out again," laughed Cecil, "Well!
better luck next time. I suppose you got late by making yourself so
fetching!"

"Perhaps!" answered Gertrude with a tiny bit of starch in her tone,
but the next moment she laughed, and asked him when he would be making
the return journey.

So the minutes slipped by till their chat was overpowered by the rush
and roar of a train coming in on the up side and there was a sudden
waving of flags and shouting by porters of "Take your seats," along
Cecil's train.

"Hullo! we're off!" he exclaimed as he jumped on to the footboard,
"we were waiting for that train to cross I suppose, but they gave us
a jolly long three minutes; its been quite six, I should say. I knew
they would. It's awfully good of you to come down and see me. Give my
love to everybody. Good-bye!"

"Good-bye!" she echoed, "mind you write when you come through again,
and see if I don't bring Denys and Maud and mother and anybody else I
can lay hold of, to meet you!"

"All right!" he said, "that's a promise!"

The train moved and she stood back smiling and waving, watching him
till the train passed round the bend. Then she turned, and encountered
Mrs. Parsons.

"I thought I would wait for you, my dear. It is a pity to trouble you
to call when you must have so _many_ engagements. It is only a matter
of a couple of words."

"Then I must get you to come round to the booking office," said
Gertrude, trying to hide her annoyance, "for I have little Maud
waiting for me, and she will think I am never coming back."

They passed down the steps and up the other side to the booking
office, and Gertrude, entering first, went quickly to the corner where
she had left her little sister.

"Well, Maudie!" she said cheerfully, "did you think I----"

She stopped short, aghast. There was the wheel chair, just as she had
left it, but it was empty. Little Maud was not there.

"Maud!" she said, looking round into every corner as if the child
might be hiding. "Maud! wherever are you?"

There was no answer. The office was empty except for the wheel chair.

Gertrude glanced up and down the platform, then out at the door that
stood open to the road. Then she knocked at the office door.

"Have