Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) The English Library No. 77 THE RAILWAY MAN AND HIS CHILDREN BY MRS. OLIPHANT _IN TWO VOLUMES_ _VOLUMES BY THE SAME AUTHOR PUBLISHED IN_ The English Library (_In the Press_) THE MARRIAGE OF ELINOR 2 Vols. _Copyright Edition_ THE RAILWAY MAN AND HIS CHILDREN BY MRS. OLIPHANT AUTHOR OF “_KIRSTEEN_,” “_WITHIN THE PRECINCTS_,” “_AT HIS GATES_,” _ETC._ _IN TWO VOLUMES_ VOLUME I. LEIPZIG HEINEMANN AND BALESTIER _LIMITED, LONDON_ 1892 THE RAILWAY MAN AND HIS CHILDREN CHAPTER I. The news that Miss Ferrars was going to marry Mr. Rowland the engineer, ran through the station like wildfire, producing a commotion and excitement which had rarely been equalled since the time of the Mutiny. Miss Ferrars! and Mr. Rowland!--it was repeated in every tone of wonder and astonishment, with as many audible notes of admiration and interrogation as would fill a whole page. “Impossible!” people said, “I don’t believe it for a moment”--“You don’t mean to say----” But when Mrs. Stanhope, who was Miss Ferrars’ friend, with whom she had been living, answered calmly that this was indeed what she meant to say, and that she was not very sure whether she was most sorry or glad--most pleased to think that her friend was thus comfortably established in life, or sorry that she was perhaps stepping a little out of her sphere--there remained nothing for her visitors but a universal gape of amazement, a murmur of deprecation or regret--“Oh, poor Miss Ferrars!” the ladies cried. “A lady, of such a good family, and marrying a man who was certainly not a gentleman.” “But he is a very good fellow,” the gentlemen said; and one or two of the mothers who were conscious in their hearts, though they did not say anything of the fact, that had he proposed for Edie or Ethel, they would have pushed his claims as far as legitimate pressure could go, held their tongues or said little, with a feeling that they had themselves escaped the criticism which was now so freely poured forth. They were aware indeed that it would have come upon them more hotly, for it was they who would have been blamed in the case