Micky was longing to ask about Esther, but pride prevented him. The guard was blowing his whistle; doors were slamming; June gripped Micky's hand. "Be a good boy, and have a good time," she said. There was a furious excitement in her eyes. He made a grimace. "I'm not expecting to have a good time," he answered. The train was slowly moving; June ran a few steps to keep up with it. Micky blurted out his question at last-- "Miss Shepstone ... Esther ... is she all right, June?" June smiled. "Oh, she's first rate," she said airily. "She's gone away for a holiday.... Good-bye." She fell back laughing and waving her hand. Micky kept his head out of the window till a cloud of smoke from the engine blown backwards shut out all sight of her, then he drew in, dragging the window up with a slam. Gone away for a holiday, had she?--well--it was nothing to him. He turned round to go back to his seat in the corner then stopping dead, staring as if he had seen a ghost; for Esther was sitting there just behind him, looking up at him with scared eyes. For a moment Micky did not move; he was like a man turned to stone. Then the blood rushed to his face in a crimson tide; he broke out into stammering speech-- "You ... you ... what ... what ... I thought...." He swayed forward a little and caught her hands. "You are real--I thought ... I thought I was just imagining it all; I thought.... Oh, wait a moment...." He sat down and leaned his head in his hands. He felt sure that he must be mad or dreaming--the world had turned upside down and pitched his thoughts into chaos; he was sure that when next he looked Esther would no longer be there--he dreaded having to raise his eyes. Esther stretched a timid hand to him; her voice shook as she said-- "Oh, I thought ... I thought perhaps you'd be glad to see me--just ... just a little--glad...." "Glad!" Micky echoed the word with almost a shout. He got up and went over to her; he looked down at her with an agony of doubt and fear in his eyes. "Why have you come?" he asked hoarsely. "If this is only a joke--if it's any nonsense of June's ... by God, it's the cruellest joke you could have played on me.... I--I...." Esther covered her face with her hands. "If that's all you've got to say to me," she began tremblingly. "Esther...." He drew her hands down; he forced her to look at him; for a long moment his eyes searched her face disbelievingly, not daring to hope.... Her cheeks flamed, but she met his eyes bravely. Micky drew a long breath; he passed a hand across his eyes as if to waken himself. Then all at once he seemed to realise that this was in very truth the woman he wanted sitting beside him; that she was here and for his sake; that he was alone and unhappy no longer; and that after all the weeks of hunger and restlessness he had got his heart's desire. He looked down at her tremulous face with eyes of passionate tenderness. "Is this my wife?" he asked hoarsely, and Esther answered--