emed to link London mysteriously with other lands. Even the
strong, active porters, who sprang at huge trunks piled on cabs, and
carried them off to the weighing-room, were different from other
porters, more important, part of a great scheme, and their actions added
to her excitement. She liked the way that an alert guard put her into
her compartment, as if he were posting a letter in a hurry, and had
others to post. Then the great and sudden bustle of the train going out
made her heart beat.

Mary had been brought to the station early, for Elinor had been nervous
lest she might miss the train, and Doctor Smythe was coming at four
o'clock that afternoon. But others who were to share the compartment
were late. It was violently exciting to have them dash in at the last
moment, and dispose of bags and thick rugs in straps to be used on the
Channel.

They were two, mother and daughter perhaps; a delicate birdlike girl and
a plump middle-aged woman with an air of extreme self-satisfaction.

In themselves they did not appear interesting, but Mary was interested,
and wondered where they were going. When they took out fashion-papers
and sixpenny novels, however, she felt that they were no longer worth
attention. How could they read, when they were saying goodbye to
England, and when each minute the windows framed charming pictures of
skimming Kentish landscape? The strangely shaped oast-houses puzzled
Mary. She longed to ask what they were, but the woman and the girl
seemed absorbed in their books and papers. Mary thought they must be
dull and stupid; but suddenly it came to her that to many people, these
among others, maybe, this journey was a commonplace, everyday affair.
Even going to France or Italy might not be to them a high adventure.
Extraordinary to reflect that all over the world men and women were
travelling, going to wonderful new places, seeing wonderful new things,
and taking it as a matter of course!

She had never seen the sea; and when the billowing fields and neat
hedges changed to chalky downs, a sudden whiff of salt on the air
blowing through a half-open window made her heart leap. She nearly
cried, "The sea!" but controlled herself because of her prim
fellow-passengers.

Mary would have been surprised if she had known their real feelings
toward her, which were not as remote as she supposed.

She looked, they both thought, like a schoolgirl going abroad for her
Christmas holidays, only it was early fo