fancy it, perhaps, in her room."

A mist of tears dimmed Patience's eyes for a moment. "Bless his dear
old heart," she said to herself softly, "how he thinks of
everything." Aloud, she said heartily, "Why, of course she would,
father. She'd be sure to love it, a real plant of her own! Will you
put it up there, on the window-ledge? I've got my dress off, and I
can't come for a minute," she added casually, in a tone very
different from the eagerness with which she listened to hear if he
did so.

"It would be a good time for him to break through, and go into the
room again," she thought to herself. But Thomas did not fall in with
her little scheme.

"I'll put it on the top stair, where you can see it," he called up,
"and I'll go and tidy myself now, and make a start for the station.
I shan't be so very much too soon."

"Only half-an-hour or so," said Patience to herself with a smile.
Aloud she said, "I think you're wise, father, then you'll be able to
take it easy on the way, and to explain to Station-Master all about
it, in case she don't come, and I expect you'll find she won't be
here for a day or two."

They kept on telling each other that, to try and prevent themselves
from counting on it too much.

"No, I don't see how she can come to-day, but I'll step along to see
the train come in; it'll satisfy our minds. We shouldn't feel happy
to shut up the house and go to bed if we didn't know for certain."

So Thomas started off with a calm, businesslike air, outwardly, but
inside him his heart was beating fast with expectation, and his step
grew quicker and quicker as soon as he was out of sight of his own
cottage windows.

He slackened his pace a little when he came within sight of the
station, for it looked as quiet and sleepy as though no train was
expected for ages yet; and the eager, shy old man felt that the men
at the station would laugh at him for arriving more than half-an-hour
before any train was due. For a moment he decided to turn away and
walk in some other direction until some of the time had passed, but
the seats on the platform looked very restful, and the platform,
bathed in the soft afternoon sunshine, looked wonderfully peaceful
and inviting. There was not a sign of life, or a sound or a
movement, except that of the little breeze ruffling the young leaves
on the chestnuts in the road outside.

"I'll explain to Mr. Simmons that I come early so as to be able to
tell him about the li