She seemed even to feel the wet soft Westerly air
on her face and eyelids, and to sniff the scent of a frieze coat; to hear
the jog of hoofs and the rolling of the wheels; to feel the closing in of
the darkness. Then, so dimly and drowsily, she seemed to know that it
was not her father, but someone--someone--then no more, no more at all.

IX

She was awakened by the scream of an engine, and looked around her
amazed. Her neck had fallen sideways while she slept, and felt horridly
stiff; her head ached, and she was shivering. She saw by the clock that
it was past five. 'If only I could get some tea!' she thought. 'Anyway
I won't stay here any longer!' When she had washed, and rubbed some of
the stiffness out of her neck, the tea renewed her sense of adventure
wonderfully. Her train did not start for an hour; she had time for a
walk, to warm herself, and went down to the river. There was an early
haze, and all looked a little mysterious; but people were already passing
on their way to work. She walked along, looking at the water flowing up
under the bright mist to which the gulls gave a sort of hovering life.
She went as far as Blackfriars Bridge, and turning back, sat down on a
bench under a plane-tree, just as the sun broke through. A little pasty
woman with a pinched yellowish face was already sitting there, so still,
and seeming to see so little, that Noel wondered of what she could be
thinking. While she watched, the woman's face began puckering, and tears
rolled slowly, down, trickling from pucker to pucker, till, summoning up
her courage, Noel sidled nearer, and said:

"Oh! What's the matter?"

The tears seemed to stop from sheer surprise; little grey eyes gazed
round, patient little eyes from above an almost bridgeless nose.

"I'ad a baby. It's dead.... its father's dead in France.... I was
goin' in the water, but I didn't like the look of it, and now I never
will."

That "Now I never will," moved Noel terribly. She slid her arm along the
back of the bench and clasped the skinniest of shoulders.

"Don't cry!"

"It was my first. I'm thirty-eight. I'll never 'ave another. Oh! Why
didn't I go in the water?"

The face puckered again, and the squeezed-out tears ran down. 'Of course
she must cry,' thought Noel; 'cry and cry till it feels better.' And she
stroked the shoulder of the little woman, whose emotion was disengaging
the scent of old clothes.

"The father of my baby was kille