"Go on," she said, taking it with a smile. "To brush away some of the prettiest tears--" She laughed exquisitely, put the handkerchief to her eyes, and then smiled her thanks over the white cambric. I let down the window nearest me and put out my head. A long look assured me that we were nearing Ringley. My idea was to pull the cord, stop the train in the station, pay the fine, and raise a car in the town, which should bring us to Rory in forty minutes by road. "But what are you going to do?" said the girl. "Wait," said I over my shoulder. Again I put out my head. In the distance I could see red houses--Ringley. I put up my right hand and felt for the chain. As I did so, there seemed to be less weigh on the train--a strange feeling. I hesitated, the wind flying in my face. We were not going so fast--so evenly. Yet, if we had run through Shy Junction, surely we were not going to stop at---- The next moment I saw what it was. We were the last coach, and there was a gap, widening slowly, between us and the rest of the train. We had been slipped. I took in my head to find my companion clasping my arm and crying. "No, no. You mustn't, you mustn't. You're awfully good, but--" "It's all right," I said. "I didn't have to. We're in the Ringley slip." "And we're going to stop there?" "Probably with an unconscionable jerk--a proper full stop. None of your commas for a slip. But there! I might have known. It's a long train that breaks no journey, and there's many a slip 'twixt Town and the North of England. However. If there isn't a train back soon, I'm going to charter a car. May I have the honour of driving you back to Rory and the mare? I'm sure the sight of her mistress will put her on her legs again quicker than all the slings and mashes of outrageous surgeons. I take it you know your Macbeth?" She laughed merrily. I looked at her appreciatively, sitting opposite and perched, as I was, on one of the compartment's dividing arms. "Sunshine after rain," I murmured. Sweet she looked in her gay green hat and her long seal-skin coat. Beneath this, the green of a skirt above the slim silk stockings and the bright shoes. Gloves and bag on the seat by her side. The face was eager, clear-cut, its features regular. But only the great eyes mattered. Perhaps, also, the mouth-- "You're a kind man," she said slowly. "And it was sweet of you to think of pulling the cord. But I should have been awfully upset, if you had." The coach ran alongside of the platform and stopped with a jerk that flung me backwards and my lady on to my chest. I sat up with my arms full of fur-coat, while its owner struggled to regain her feet. "Infants in arms need not be paid for," said I, setting her upright with a smile. "I hope the station-master saw you, or he mightn't believe---- Where were we? Oh, I know. You'd have been upset, would you? More upset than this?"