I think it's as well we did."

"Yes, indeed," said Cecilia, with a shiver. "I don't think I could have
stood another night in Lancaster Gate. I've been awake for three nights
wondering what we should do if any hitch came in our plans."

"Just like a woman!" said Bob, laughing. "You always jump over your
hedges before you come to them." He pulled her gently out of her chair.
"Come along; I'll have these things sent up to our rooms, and then we'll
get some dinner--after which you'll go to bed." It was a plan which
sounded supremely attractive to his sister.

Not even the roar and rattle of the trains under the station hotel kept
Cecilia awake that night. She slept, dreamlessly at first; then she had
a dream that she was just about to embark in a great ship for Australia;
that she was going up the gangway, when suddenly behind her came her
father and her stepmother, with Avice, Wilfred and Queenie, who all
seized her, and began to drag her back. She fought and struggled with
them, and from the top of the gangway came Mr. M'Clinton and Eliza, who
tugged her upwards. Between the two parties she was beginning to think
she would be torn to pieces, when suddenly came swooping from the clouds
an areoplane, curiously like a wheelbarrow, and in it Bob, who leaned
out as he dived, grasped her by the hair, and swung her aboard with him.
They whirred away over the sea; where, she did not know, but it did not
seem greatly to matter. They were still flying between sea and sky when
she woke, to find the sunlight streaming into her room, and some one
knocking at her door.

"Are you awake, Tommy?" It was Bob's voice. "Lie still, and I'll send
you up a cup of tea."

That was very pleasant, and a happy contrast to awakening in Lancaster
Gate; and breakfast a little later was delightful, in a big sunny room,
with interesting people coming and going all the time. Bob and Cecilia
smiled at each other like two happy children. It was almost unbelievable
that they were free; away from tryanny and coldness, with no more
plotting and planning, and no more prying eyes.

Bob went off to interview the transport officer after breakfast, and
Cecilia found the officer's wife with the two little boys struggling to
attend to her luggage, while the children ran away and lost themselves
in the corridors or endeavoured to commit suicide by means of the lift.
So Cecilia took command of them and played with them until the harassed
mother had finished, and