d Allan,
internally, as he handed his traveling companion into an empty carriage,
officiously placed at his disposal, before all the people at the
station, by the guard. "You shan't be disturbed, sir," the man
whispered, confidentially, with a smile and a touch of his hat. Allan
could have knocked him down with the utmost pleasure. "Stop!" he said,
from the window. "I don't want the carriage--" It was useless; the guard
was out of hearing; the whistle blew, and the train started for London.

The select assembly of travelers' friends, left behind on the platform,
congregated in a circle on the spot, with the station-master in the
center.

The station-master--otherwise Mr. Mack--was a popular character in the
neighborhood. He possessed two social qualifications which invariably
impress the average English mind--he was an old soldier, and he was a
man of few words. The conclave on the platform insisted on taking his
opinion, before it committed itself positively to an opinion of its own.
A brisk fire of remarks exploded, as a matter of course, on all sides;
but everybody's view of the subject ended interrogatively, in a question
aimed pointblank at the station-master's ears.

"She's got him, hasn't she?" "She'll come back 'Mrs. Armadale,' won't
she?" "He'd better have stuck to Miss Milroy, hadn't he?" "Miss Milroy
stuck to _him_. She paid him a visit at the great house, didn't she?"
"Nothing of the sort; it's a shame to take the girl's character away.
She was caught in a thunder-storm close by; he was obliged to give her
shelter; and she's never been near the place since. Miss Gwilt's been
there, if you like, with no thunderstorm to force _her_ in; and Miss
Gwilt's off with him to London in a carriage all to themselves, eh, Mr.
Mack?" "Ah, he's a soft one, that Armadale! with all his money, to take
up with a red-haired woman, a good eight or nine years older than he is!
She's thirty if she's a day. That's what I say, Mr. Mack. What do you
say?" "Older or younger, she'll rule the roast at Thorpe Ambrose; and
I say, for the sake of the place, and for the sake of trade, let's make
the best of it; and Mr. Mack, as a man of the world, sees it in the same
light as I do, don't you, sir?"

"Gentlemen," said the station-master, with his abrupt military accent,
and his impenetrable military manner, "she's a devilish fine woman. And
when I was Mr. Armadale's age, it's my opinion, if her fancy had laid
that way, she might have mar