strikes me that he won't be able to help it," the gentleman said,
with an ugly smile, which seemed to make the lady very angry. "Well now,
what's to be done? This is a look-out you had not bargained for."

The lady looked puzzled and very much annoyed. She bit her lip, and
tapped her foot on the floor.

"If he lasts out till we get to London, I don't know that the child
being ill will interfere with our plans. It might be turned to
advantage. If not, he must be left behind in Edinburgh," the lady said.

Elsie pricked up her ears. "You do not mean that you would leave him
without me," she said quickly, thinking her ears must have deceived her.

"He could be brought to London when he was better," the lady said, with
a glance at the gentleman. "He would be taken care of; but we must go
on."

"If he stays in Edinburgh, I shall too," Elsie said, with sudden
decision.

"You will do what I tell you!" the lady said, with one of her terrible
looks, which so frightened Elsie that she could say nothing, although
her mind was firmly made up that she would never leave Duncan.

Then they went on talking again, and Elsie heard a great deal of
discussion about whether they should stay in an hotel or not, and she
gathered that the presence of herself and Duncan was the point of
difficulty, for she heard the lady say that she had not been able to get
him any clothes, and his own were much too coarse and common, and that
people in Edinburgh would notice much more than simple country-folk like
Mrs. Alexander.

Elsie had long been doubtful whether these people were kind or not, but
now she felt sure they were not. She had no idea why they had done all
they had, but she felt sure it was not from real kindness, and she began
to feel suspicious that they would be very unkind to Duncan.

It was a very strange thing, and not at all what she had ever read in
any book, that they should twice have fallen in with unkind people.

By-and-by some other people came into the carriage, and then Mrs.
Donaldson went and sat by Duncan, putting her arm round him, and drawing
his head down on to her shoulder.

After being many hours in the train, they arrived at a great place,
which turned out to be the Waverley Station at Edinburgh. It was such a
busy, wonderful place, with so many lights and people, that Elsie would
have been wild with delight if it had not been for her anxiety about
Duncan.

The gentleman gave some directions to a porter abou