A cab arrived in good time to take them to the station. Mrs Fortescue herself accompanied them to the train, and purchased their tickets for them out of the postal order which had been cashed the day before, and which left enough over to provide them with cabs when they got to London. She herself saw them into a first-class carriage marked "For Ladies only," and she gave them also into the charge of the guard, paying him five shillings in advance for looking after them. It is true she paid him this money out of the girls' own little fund, but it quite looked as if she were spending her own worldly goods for their advantage. The last thing they saw as they left the little station was her kind and yet anxious face gazing after them. She was blowing kisses to them, and wondering most anxiously what would happen between now and the evening when she was to meet their train again. "I do feel," said Florence, as the train brought them beyond the narrow confines of the little town of Langdale, "that we are deceiving dear Mrs Fortescue most horribly." "Well, it's no fault of ours," said Brenda; "we'll have to undeceive her to-morrow. But, after all, she won't suffer, for Mr Timmins will pay her in full for keeping us until the end of the holidays; and then, instead of going back to school, we'll begin our life's work. I do feel excited about what is going to happen to-day, don't you, Florence?" Florence said she did, and sat book in her seat. But her thoughts were considerably absorbed with Lieutenant Reid. She was wondering what he was doing, and how he was spending his time, and considering how she would pass her own time until that day next week, when she could tell him that he might have his very heart's desire, and that a girl, poor as the poorest church mouse, would be willing to marry him. "How glad he will be," thought Florence. "He is very nice, very nice indeed; but, of course, we must be engaged for some time before we think of marrying, for I could not leave darling Brenda until she was safely secure with some sort of livelihood." They arrived in London between eleven and twelve o'clock, and were met at the station by one of Mr Timmins' clerks--a grave, elderly-looking man of the name of Andrews. The girls had never seen him before, but he had been given explicit directions by Mr Timmins to look out for young ladies bearing a certain appearance, and as no other girl quite so pretty as Florence stepped out of the train, he went up to her at once and asked if she was Miss Heathcote. Florence replied in the affirmative. They were then ushered by Mr Andrews into a very comfortable private brougham which belonged to Mr Timmins, and were taken straight to his office in Chancery Lane.