if she would have any trouble
with the big boys and girls, and how she would like Mrs. Biggs, who had
boarded the school teachers for twenty years, and was to board her; and
if by any chance she would ever see the inside of the Crompton House, of
which she had heard from a friend who had visited in the town and had
given glowing descriptions of it.

At last, as the air in the car grew cooler, she fell asleep, and did not
waken till the sun was down, and a great bank of black clouds was
looming up in the west, with mutterings of thunder, and an occasional
flash of lightning showing against the dark sky. She might not have
wakened then if the car had not given a lurch, with a jar which brought
every one to his feet. The train was off the track, and it would be two
or three hours before it was on again, the conductor said to the crowd
eagerly questioning him. There was nothing to do but wait, and Eloise
did it philosophically. She had dined from her lunch box in the middle
of the day, and was now glad that her grandmother had put so much in it,
as it not only served her for supper, but also a tired mother and two
hungry children. As the car began to grow close again, she left it for a
breath of the fresh air, which blew over the hills as the storm came
nearer. She heard some one say it was time for the New York Express,
which was to pass them at Crompton, and it soon came thundering on, but
stopped suddenly when it found its progress impeded. She saw the
passengers alight to ascertain the cause of the hindrance, and heard
their impatient exclamations at the delay, which would seriously
inconvenience some of them.

"It may be midnight before we reach Crompton. I wonder if Howard will
meet me at that late hour," she heard a young man say, the smoke from
his cigar blowing in her face as he passed where she was sitting on a
stump.

"He is sure to be there. I saw him day before yesterday, and he is wild
to have you come. I fancy he finds it rather dull with only a cranky old
man and a half-crazy woman for associates. Howard wants life and fun,"
was the reply of his companion, and then the two young men were out of
hearing.

Who Howard was, or the cranky old man and half-crazy woman, Eloise had
no idea, nor did she give them a thought. One thing alone impressed
her,--the late hour when she would probably arrive at Crompton. Would
any one be there to meet her, or any conveyance, and if not, how was she
to find her way to Mrs