Helena, bending forward, overlooked them all with imperceptible disdain. The face she sought was not among those that swam in review beneath her. And presently encountering an overbold glance, she drew back with a little frown of annoyance. Already the throng was thinning; conveyances laden to the guards were drawing out of the rank and rattling and rumbling off through stifling drifts of dust; no more passengers were issuing from the coaches; and already the parlour-car porters were picking up their stools and preparing to swing back aboard the train. The conductor waved his final signal. The bell tolled its warning. The locomotive belched black smoke and cinders and amid stentorian puffings began to move, the coaches following to their tune of clanking couplings. No sign of her refractory nephew. And still Helena hesitated to give the order to drive home; John had telephoned; it wasn't like him to be delinquent in his promises. The end of the last car was passing her when she saw him. He appeared suddenly on the rearmost platform, with the startled expression and air of a Jack-in-the-box; dropped his suit-case over the rear rail; ran down the steps; delayed an instant to gauge distance and speed: and with nice calculation dropped lightly to the ground. Pausing only to recover his luggage, he approached the motor-car with a sheepish smile for his handsome young aunt, who regarded him with an air of mingled bewilderment and despair. "Wel-l!" she exclaimed, as soon as he was near enough to hear--"of _all_ things--!" "Right you are!" he affirmed gravely, tossing his handbag into the car and following it. "Kick along, Davy," he added, with a nod to the chauffeur; and gracefully sank back upon the seat beside Helena. Purring, the car began to grope its way through the dust-fog. Matthias turned twinkling eyes to his aunt. She compressed her lips and shook her head helplessly. "Words inadequate, aunty?" "Quite!" she said. "_What_ were you doing on that train, to come so near forgetting the station?" "Thinking," he explained: "wrapped in profound and exhaustive meditation. I say, how stunning you look!" She gave him up; or one inferred as much from her gesture. "You're impossible," she said in a tragic voice. "Thinking!... While _I_ had to wait there and be ogled by all those odious men!" "You must've been ready to sink through the ground." She eyed him stonily. "You didn't care--!" "Even if I hadn't been preoccupied, it would never have entered my head that you seriously objected to being admired."