"A great many reasons, but principally because I couldn't stay away!" replied Jack, not smiling as was his wont, but looking down upon her with an intent scrutiny, which aroused Sylvia's curiosity. She did not realise how changed she was by the experience of the last few weeks, or what a pathetic little face it was which looked up at him between the dead black of hat and cape. The brown eyes looked bigger than ever, the delicate aquiline of the features showed all the more distinctly for their sharpened pallor, and Jack looked down at her through the mist, and thanked God for the health and strength which made him a fitting protector for her weakness. The sound of that involuntary "Oh, Jack!" rang sweetly in his ears, and gave a greater confidence to his manner, as he steered her through the crowd. "Miss Munns told us when you were expected, and we talked of meeting you at the station, but I decided that I had better stay away; then I wrote a letter to welcome you, and tore it up; then for no purpose at all I began looking at Bradshaw, and it seemed there was a train which I could catch. And it rained! It's dismal arriving in the rain. Next thing I knew I was in the station, and the train started when I was sitting inside, and--here I am!" Sylvia laughed softly, it was such an age since she had laughed, and it was such a happy, contented little sound that she was quite startled thereat. The custom-house officials were going through the farce of examining the luggage, and while the rest of the passengers groaned and lamented at the delay, Jack and his companion stood together in the background, blissfully unconscious of time and damp. "Are you glad to see me, Sylvia?" he asked, for the joy of hearing her say in words what voice and eyes had already proclaimed; and she waved her hand round the bleak landscape, and said tersely-- "Look! It felt like that; black and empty, and heart-breaking, and all the others seemed to have friends--everyone but me. I think I was never so glad before. I shall bless you for coming all my life!" Jack laughed softly, and pressed her hand against his arm. "Poor little girl! I knew just how you would be feeling; that's why I came. Wouldn't you have come to meet me, if you had been the man and I the girl?" "Yes, to the ends of the earth!" Sylvia replied, but not with her lips, for there are some things which a self-respecting girl may not say, however much she may feel them. Instead she murmured a few non- committal phrases, and gave the conversation a less personal tone, by inquiring after the various friends at home--Miss Munns, Bridgie, Pixie and the boys, and Jack answered in his usual breezy fashion, relating little incidents which made Sylvia smile with the old happy sense of friendship, repeating loving speeches, which brought the grateful tears to her eyes. The world was not empty after all, while she possessed such faithful, loving friends.