The twelve o'clock train came steaming into the Katterley station, where it would stay its accustomed three minutes, and those going by it looked alive. A very few passengers got out; a vast many rushed up to take their places. People were flocking to Coombe Dalton _en messe_; and would be flocking there until public curiosity was sated. A porter held open the door of a first-class carriage for a party who were struggling on to the platform, one running before another; it consisted of two gentlemen, three ladies, and a maid-servant. The porter knew them well and touched his cap; Mr. and Mrs. Lake, Oliver Jupp, and his two eldest sisters. "Let us have the compartment to ourselves, if you can manage it, Johnson," said Oliver in an undertone. "The day is too hot for crowding." "Very well, sir," replied the man. "I dare say I can contrive it." "But now whereabouts _is_ this carriage?" called out one of the ladies, in a hasty and rather shrieking voice, as she looked to the right and left; "because, if it's not just in the middle, I won't get in. I'll never put myself towards either end of a train again as long as I live." "Step in, step in," cried Oliver to her. "You are all right." "Make haste, miss," added the porter. "The time's up." "Of course it's up," repeated the young lady, who was no other than Mary Ann Jupp; "and I wonder it wasn't up before we reached it. This comes of putting off things till the last moment. I told you all the clocks were slow and we should be late. If there's one thing I hate more than another, it's the being obliged to rush up and catch a train at the last moment! No time to choose your carriage--no time to see or do anything; they may put you in the guard's van if they please, and you not know it until you are off. I dare say we have come without our tickets now. Has anybody thought of them?" In reply, Oliver Jupp held up the six bits of cardboard for his sister's satisfaction, and the party settled themselves in their seats; the maid-servant, who was Mrs. Lake's, entering last. "Why, Elizabeth, is that you?" exclaimed Miss Jupp. "I declare I never saw you." "Didn't you, miss?" replied the girl, who was very tall and thin. "I walked behind you from our house." "I thought it better to bring Elizabeth," interposed Clara Lake, who was looking unusually lovely in her summer dress--white muslin with a blue sprig upon it. "Mrs. Chester's servants will be glad of help with so many of us to wait upon." "Mrs. Chester is the best manager of a house I ever saw," cried the Miss Jupps in a breath. They wore alpaca gowns of very light green, and hats trimmed with velvet. "Fancy!" added Margaret, "only two servants, and one of those you may almost call a nurse, for the children require plenty of attending to, and yet things seem to go on smoothly. I can't think how she contrives it." "Trust to Mrs. Chester for contriving," said Mr. Lake. "She has to do it. Besides, you forget Anna."