tuff.
That's the kind she is. Anybody would know it by simply looking at her.
Father, I don't believe you've got my ticket. Hadn't you better go and
see about it?"

The Canon went in search of the station master and found him at last
digging potatoes in a plot of ground beyond the signal box. It took some
time to persuade him to part with anything so valuable as a ticket to
Dublin.

"Lalage," I said, while the Canon was arguing with the station master,
"I want you to write to me from school and tell me how you are getting
on."

"I have a lot of letters to write," she said. "I'm not sure I can write
to you."

"Try. I particularly want to know what Miss Pettigrew thinks of your
English composition. I should mark you high for it myself."

"I have to write to father every week, and I've promised to answer Tom
Kitterick when he lets me know how the new pigs are getting on."

"Still you might manage a line to me in between. If you do I'll send you
a long answer or a picture postcard, whichever you like."

"I can't read your writing," said Lalage, "so I'd rather have the
postcard."

The Canon returned just as the train steamed in. We put Lalage into a
second-class compartment. Then I slipped away and gave the guard half
a crown, charging him to look after Lalage and to see that no mischief
happened to her on the way to Dublin. To my surprise he was unwilling
to receive the tip. He told me that the Canon had already given him
two shillings and he seemed to think that he was being overpaid for a
simple, not very onerous, duty. I pressed my half crown into his hand
and assured him that before he got to Dublin he would, if he really
looked after Lalage, have earned more than four and sixpence.

"In fact," I said, "four and sixpence won't be nearly enough to
compensate you for the amount of worry and anxiety you will go through.
You must allow me to add another half crown and make seven shillings of
it.'"

The man was a good deal surprised and seemed inclined to protest.

"You needn't hesitate," I said. "I wouldn't take on the job myself for
double the money."

"It could be," said the guard pocketing my second half crown, "that the
young lady might be for getting out at the wrong station. There's some
of them does."

"Nothing so simple as that," I said. "Any ordinary young lady would get
out at a wrong station, and a couple of shillings would be plenty to
offer you for chasing her in again. This one----"

I hesi