cross she is at having to do it. You should have been
there to help her, and the missis'll be out in a minute."

The harnessing of Dapple was not easy in the faint light, and he could
not find the stable lantern. But it got done at last, and Geoff led the
cart round to the dairy door, where Betsy was filling the last of the
cans. She was not so cross as she might have been, and Mrs. Eames had
not yet appeared. They got the cans into the cart, and in a minute or
two Geoff found himself jogging along the road, already becoming
familiar, to the station.

It seemed to grow darker instead of lighter, for the moon had gone
behind a cloud, and sunrise was still a good time off. Geoff wondered
dreamily to himself why people need get up so early in the country, and
then remembered that it would take two or three hours for the cans to
get to London. How little he or Vicky had thought, when they drank at
breakfast the nice milk which Mrs. Tudor had always taken care to have
of the best, of the labour and trouble involved in getting it there in
time! And though he had hurried so, he was only just at the station when
the train whizzed in, and the one sleepy porter growled at him for not
having "looked sharper," and banged the milk-cans about unnecessarily in
his temper, so that Geoff was really afraid they would break or burst
open, and all the milk come pouring out.

"You'll have to be here in better time for the twelve train," he said
crossly. "I'm not a-going to do this sort o' work for you nor no chap,
if you can't be here in time."

Geoff did not answer--he was getting used to sharp words and tones. He
nearly fell asleep in the cart as he jogged home again, and to add to
his discomfort a fine, small, chill, November rain began to fall. He
buttoned up his jacket, and wished he had put on his overcoat; and then
he laughed rather bitterly to think how absurd he would look with this
same overcoat, which had been new only a month before, driving old
Dapple in the milk-cart. He was wet and chilled to the bone when he
reached the farm, and even if he had energy to drive a little faster he
would not have dared to do so, after the farmer's warning.

Mrs. Eames was in the kitchen when, after putting up the cart and pony,
Geoff came in. There was a delicious fragrance of coffee about which
made his mouth water, but he did not even venture to go near the fire.
Mrs. Eames heard him, however, and looked up. She started a little at
the s