s for a slip. But there! I might have known. It's a long
train that breaks no journey, and there's many a slip 'twixt Town and
the North of England. However. If there isn't a train back soon, I'm
going to charter a car. May I have the honour of driving you back to
Rory and the mare? I'm sure the sight of her mistress will put her on
her legs again quicker than all the slings and mashes of outrageous
surgeons. I take it you know your Macbeth?"

She laughed merrily. I looked at her appreciatively, sitting opposite
and perched, as I was, on one of the compartment's dividing arms.

"Sunshine after rain," I murmured. Sweet she looked in her gay green
hat and her long seal-skin coat. Beneath this, the green of a skirt
above the slim silk stockings and the bright shoes. Gloves and bag on
the seat by her side. The face was eager, clear-cut, its features
regular. But only the great eyes mattered. Perhaps, also, the mouth--

"You're a kind man," she said slowly. "And it was sweet of you to
think of pulling the cord. But I should have been awfully upset, if
you had."

The coach ran alongside of the platform and stopped with a jerk that
flung me backwards and my lady on to my chest. I sat up with my arms
full of fur-coat, while its owner struggled to regain her feet.

"Infants in arms need not be paid for," said I, setting her upright
with a smile. "I hope the station-master saw you, or he mightn't
believe---- Where were we? Oh, I know. You'd have been upset, would
you? More upset than this?"

"Oh, much," she said, her eyebrows raised above a faint smile. "You
see, then I should have been upset properly."

As she spoke, she laid a hand on my shoulder, to steady herself, while
she peered into the mirror above my head. I looked round and up at the
smiling face, six inches away.

"Then I wish I had," said I. One hand was settling her plumed hat.
Without looking down, she set the other firmly upon my chin, and turned
my face round and away.

"Open the door and hand me out nicely," she said.

I rose and put on my hat.

"Do you ever play the piano?" I said suddenly.

"Why?"

"I was thinking of the fingers. You have such an exquisite touch."

The evident pleasure the chestnut mare evinced at her mistress's
arrival was a real tribute to personality. Also the vet's morning
report was more satisfactory. It seemed that Dear One was mending.
Greatly comforted, my lady let me give her lunch at the Du