hey stood outside the bank
watching the street cars clang by. "I've lived in the back blocks so
long that houses suffocate me and people all look like monstrosities.
I'm glad to have seen you, though. I was very fond of Rose, as a boy."

But he asked no questions about her or Andrew. He simply took for
granted all that Marcella said, and was immensely interested in his
sheep and his garden. He had recently imported a Chinese gardener who
was going to do wonderful things.

"I ought to take you somewhere to get lunch," he said doubtfully,
looking at the crowds of people and then at his watch. "There's a train
in one hour that will let me catch a connection at midnight."

"Then I'll take you to the station," said Marcella promptly, and added
on impulse, "I'm a bit sorry I'm not coming with you, though. I'd have
liked to see my cousins--"

"I don't suppose you'd like them much. They are nothing like Rose. I
married an Australian, you know, and the girls are like her. They have
had very little schooling. They are good girls, very good girls, but
just a little hard," he sighed a little, and Marcella felt a quick pang
of regret for his loneliness. Obvious though it was that he did not want
her, she wished, for a moment, she could have gone with him to cheer his
solitude.

"But Ah Sing makes all the difference to me," he added hopefully. "He's
growing strawberries, and next week, I hope, we shall see the asparagus
peep through."

So she left him on the platform to dream of his sheep and Ah Sing his
only friend, while she dreamed of what next week would bring.

She felt it was almost impossible to wait to tell Louis the good news;
she wished she had arranged to meet him in the city; she wished all
sorts of things as she wandered, solitary, round the streets, feeling
very unsteady on her feet after so long on a buoyant floor, and
expecting the pavement to rock and sway at every step. She went into the
Post Office and despatched letters home. As she was going down the
street again rather aimlessly she caught sight of Mrs. Hetherington and
Mr. Peters coming out of a restaurant, and was reminded forcibly of
Jimmy who would be alone in the drizzling rain on board.

Buying a great box of chocolates, a basket of peaches and a clockwork
train she hurried back to the ship, feeling very wealthy.

It was a dreary day. Great Customs House buildings blotted out any
possible view, reminding her very much of the ugliness of Tilbury.