Sometimes he would sit down on the railway bench on the platform,
staring down at the ground, smiling to himself. What a surprise he had
in store for Rose! What would he say to her first? Would he say anything
of the building? No, he would say nothing at all of the building until
they drove across the bridge and right up to the gate! "Rose," he would
then say, "do you remember the hill--the place under the beech trees?"
She was sure to remember that place. It was there they had spent so much
time, there he had first found her lips, there they had quarrelled! And
Rose would look up to that old place and see the building! What would
she think? Would she feel about it as he felt himself? She would, she
would! What sort of look would come into her face? And what would he be
able to tell her about it at all?... He would say nothing at all about
it; that would be the best way! They would say nothing to each other,
but walk in the gate and up the drive across the hill, the hill they
often ran across in the old days! They would be quite silent, and walk
into the house silently. The building, too, would be silent, and he
would take her from one room to another in silence, and when she had
seen everything he would look into her eyes and say, "Well?" It would be
all so like a wonderful story, a day of magic!... Martin Cosgrave sprang
from the bench and went to the edge of the platform, staring down the
long level road, with its two rails tapering almost together in the
distance. Not a sign of a train. Would it never come in? Had anything
happened the boat? He walked up and down with energy, holding the lapel
of his coat, saying to himself, "I must not be thinking of things like
this. It is foolishness. Whatever is to happen will happen, and that's
all about it. I am quite at ease, quite cool!"
At last it came, steaming and blowing. Windows were lowered, carriage
doors flew open, people ran up and down. Martin Cosgrave stood a little
away, tense, drawn, his eyes sweeping down the people. Suddenly
something shot through him; an old sensation, an old thrill, made his
whole being tingle, his mind exult, and then there was the most
exquisite relaxation. How long it was since he felt like this before!
His eyes were burning upon a familiar figure that had come from a
carriage, the figure of a girl in a navy blue coat and skirt, her back
turned, struggling with parcels, helped by the hands of invisible people
from within the carriage. Martin Cosgrave strode down the platform,
eagerness, joy, sense of proprietorship, already in his stride.
"Rose!" he exclaimed while the girl's back was still turned to him.
His voice shook in spite of him. The woman turned about sharply.
Martin Cosgrave gave a little start back. It was not Rose Dempsey, but
her sister, Sheela. How like Rose she had grown!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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