At last and at last the station-board with the familiar name flashed past her window. She thrilled. The station lamps repeated it as the train slowed down. She thought—how long the platform’s grown! ... a bookstall! ... a bookstall on each side! ... there used not to be ... wasn’t the station smaller?... She spoke to the ticket collector shyly, blushing, like a girl going to an assignation and thinking that all the world must know it. He answered, already catching at the ticket of the traveller behind her— “How far to Breckonridge? A mile, maybe—but you get the tram at the corner.” She stared. She would have questioned him again, but the throng of people pressed her forward. A tram through the village? ... queer! ... not that it mattered to her ... she would take the old short cut through the fields outside the station yard.... There was a stile ... and a wild cherry tree.... She left the yard, the unfamiliar yard with asphalt and motors and a great iron bridge, crossed the road, and stopped bewildered. There were no fields. ‘Station Road.’ The labelled yellow villas were like a row of faces. Eyes, nose, mouth—windows, porch, steps—steps like teeth. They grinned. In a sort of panic she ran past them down the road, a lumbering, clumsy woman. She trod on her skirt, and recovered herself with difficulty. She heard a small boy laugh and call after her. She clambered on to the tram. “I want to go to the village—to Breckonridge——” “It’s all Breckonridge. ’Ow far?” She stared. “I don’t remember. He said a mile.” “Town ’All, I expect.” He took his toll and passed on. She turned vaguely to a neighbour. “Town Hall? I don’t remember. The road’s all different Where are the fields?” The neighbour nodded. “Built over. When were you here last? Thirty years? My word, you’ll find changes! I notice it, even in five. Very full it’s getting. Good train service. My husband can get to his office under the hour.” She said dazedly— “It was—it is—a little village.” The woman laughed. “I daresay. But how long ago?” “There were fields,” she said under her breath. “There were flowers——” “Here’s the Town Hall. Didn’t you want the Town Hall?” Unsteadily she rose and got out. The tram clanged forward.