"Poor weary creatures!" she thought. "We have so much, and they so little!" But she did not speak again till the carriage pulled up at the station, when she leant forward with anxious eyes, and said something confusedly about the crowd. Major Colquhoun thought she was afraid of being stared at. He took out his watch. "You will only have to cross the platform to the carriage," he said, "and the train ought to be up by this time. But if you don't mind being left alone a moment, I'll just go myself and see if it is, and where they are going to put us, and then I can take you there straight, and you won't feel the crowd at all." He was not gone many minutes, but when he returned the carriage was empty. "Where is Mrs. Colquhoun?" he said. "She followed you, sir," the coachman answered, touching his hat. "Confound--" He pulled himself up. "She'll be back in a moment, I suppose," he muttered. "Dover express! Take your seats!" bawled a porter. "Are you for the Dover express?" "Yes," said Major Colquhoun. "Engaged carriage, sir?" "Yes--oh, by the way, perhaps she's gone to the carriage," and he started to see, the porter following him. "Did you notice a young lady in a gray dress pass this way?" he asked the man as they went. "With a pink feather in 'er 'at, sir?" "Yes." "Not pass up this way, sir," the man rejoined. "She got into a 'ansom over there, and drove off--if it was the same young lady." Major Colquhoun stopped short. The compartment reserved for them was empty also. "Dover express! Dover express!" the guard shouted as he came along banging the carriage doors to. "For Dover, sir?" he said in his ordinary voice to Major Colquhoun. "No. It seems not," that gentleman answered deliberately. The guard went on: "Dover express! Dover express! All right, Bill!" This was to someone in front as he popped into his own van, and shut the door. Then the whistle shrieked derisively, the crank turned, and the next moment the train slid out serpent-like into the mist. Major Colquhoun had watched it off like any ordinary spectator, and when it had gone he looked at the porter, and the porter looked at him. "Was your luggage in the train, sir?" the man asked him. "Yes, but only booked to Dover," Major Colquhoun answered carelessly, taking out a cigarette case and choosing a cigarette with exaggerated precision. When he had lighted it he tipped the porter, and strolled back to the entrance, on the chance of finding the carriage still there, but it had gone, and he called a hansom, paused a moment with his foot on the step, then finally directed the man to drive to the Fraylings'. "Swell's bin sold some'ow," commented the porter. "And if I was a swell I wouldn't take on neither." CHAPTER XIII.