ses,
as there was no need as yet to go into all the details of the
apportionment of rooms, and so on. That would be time enough in the
spring, when we proposed to stay at East Hornham for a week or two at the
hotel there, and arrange our new quarters at leisure. It was running it
rather close, however; the least hitch, such as failing to catch one
train out of the many which Mary had cleverly managed to fit in to each
other, would throw our scheme out of gear; so mother promised not to be
anxious if we failed to appear, and we, on our part, promised to
telegraph if we met with any detention.

"For the first half--three-quarters, I might say--of our journey we got
on swimmingly. We caught all the trains; the porters and guards were
civility itself; and as our only luggage was a small hand-bag that we
carried ourselves, we had no trouble of any kind. When we got to Fexel
Junction, the last important station we were to pass, our misfortunes
began. Here, by rights, we should have had a full quarter of an hour to
wait for the express which should drop us at East Hornham on its way
north; but when the guard heard our destination he shook his head.

"'The train's gone,' he said. 'We are more than half an hour late.'

"And so it proved. A whole hour and a half had we to sit shivering, in
spite of the big fire, in the Fexel waiting-room, and it was eleven at
night before, in the slowest of slow trains, we at last found ourselves
within a few miles of East Hornham.

"Our spirits had gone down considerably since the morning. We were very
tired, and that has _very_ much more to do with people's spirits than
almost any one realises.

"'It wouldn't matter if we were going to friends,' said Mary. 'But it
does seem very strange and desolate--we two poor things, two days before
Christmas, arriving at midnight in a perfectly strange place, and nowhere
to go to but an inn.'

"'But think how nice it will be, getting home to mother
again--particularly if we've settled it all nicely about the house,'
I said.

"And Mary told me I was a good little thing, and she was very glad to
have me with her. It was not usual for me to be the braver of the two,
but you see I felt my responsibilities on this occasion to be great,
and was determined to show myself worthy of them.

"And when we did get to the inn, the welcome we received was worthy of
Dr. Johnson's praise of inns in general. The fire was so bright, the
little table so temptingly sp