I'll see you at Dover."

There were many people on the platform; in the next carriage a pretty
girl was seeing a man off--looking up at him as he stood on the
footboard with eyes that told their story eloquently.

Micky looked at her enviously. He would have given his right hand if
there had been some one there to see him off with just that expression
in her eyes--the right some one, of course. He turned away from the
window with an uncomfortable lump in his throat.

He had nothing in the world but his confounded money, and a lot of
good that was to him! It could not buy happiness.

The guard came down the platform--

"Take your seats--take your seats...."

A girl and a man pushed past him. The girl was staring eagerly in at
all the windows as she passed. When she saw Micky she gave a little
cry of relief.

"Here he is--Micky! Micky!"

Micky started to his feet.

"June!" he said. For a moment he thought something must have
happened--something was wrong--Esther!... her name was trembling on
his lips, but June rushed on impetuously before he had time to speak
it.

"We thought we'd come and see you off--George told me you were going,
and I guessed you'd be on this train.... I'm so glad we found
you--it's rotten seeing oneself off, isn't it?..."

Rochester came up laughing and red in the face; he took off his hat
and mopped his hot forehead.

"I can't keep pace with her, she's like a whirlwind," he said
whimsically. "She raced me off here before I could say a word."

"It's kind of you to come," Micky said.

He was pleased to see them; he felt decidedly less ill-tempered than
he had done a moment ago. He looked down at June's radiant face, and a
little doubt went through his heart.

He was in that dangerous state through which so many men have to pass
when the woman they love will have none of them. If Marie Deland had
happened to turn up then, he would have asked for forgiveness and have
married her offhand and regretted it the next day; and now, as he
looked at June, he wondered if he had been a fool not to properly
appreciate her. He felt a vague twinge of jealousy, realising that the
days were gone for ever when he had been the most wonderful man in all
the world to her.

He had never loved her save in a brotherly way, and he did not love
her now, but at heart men are all dogs in the manger, and it was some
such feeling that filled Micky's heart as he leaned out of the window
and looked at this gir