arge as he could, but he could not hide her from the
public stare, for nature had not made her inconspicuous, and her taste
in clothes would have defeated nature if it had. Her orange toque had
fallen sideways on her tawny hair--she was like a big, broken sunflower.

"My dear Jo," he said gently, after a time--"let me go and get you a
drink of water."

"No--don't leave me."

"Then let me ask someone to go."

"No--no.... Oh, I'm all right--it's only that I felt so glad at seeing
you again."

Lawrence was surprised.

"It makes me think of that other time when you were kind--I remember
when Martin died ... oh, I can't help wishing sometimes he was
dead--that he'd died right at the start--or I had."

"My dear ..."

"Oh, when Martin died, at least it was finished; but this time it ain't
finished--it's like something broken." She clasped her hands, in their
brown kid gloves, against her heart.

"Won't you tell me what's happened? This isn't Martin you're talking
about?"

"No. But I thought he was like Martin--that's what made me take to him
at the start. I looked up and I saw him, and I said to myself 'That's
Martin'--it gave me quite a jump."

The Waterloo train was in the station and the people on the platform
surged towards it, leaving Lawrence and Joanna stranded on their seat.
Lawrence looked at the train for a minute, then shook his head, as if in
answer to some question he had asked himself.

"Look here, Jo," he said, "won't you tell me what's happened? I can't
quite understand you as it is. Don't tell me anything you'd rather not."

Joanna sat upright and swallowed violently.

"It's like this," she said. "I've just broken off my engagement to
marry--maybe you didn't know I was engaged to be married?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well, I was. I was engaged to a young chap--a young chap in an office.
I met him at Marlingate, when I was staying there that time. I thought
he was like Martin--that's what made me take to him at the first. But he
wasn't like Martin--not really in his looks and never in his ways. And
at last it got more'n I could bear, and I broke with him this morning
and came away--and I reckon he ain't sorry, neither.... I'm thirteen
year older than him."

Her tears began to flow again, but the platform was temporarily
deserted. Lawrence waited for her to go on--he suspected a tragedy which
had not yet been revealed.

"Oh, my heart's broke," she continued--"reckon I'm done for, and there's
n