. Biggs?

"Grandma says never cross a river till you reach it, when you will
probably find a plank, if nothing more," she thought, and settled
herself to wait through the long hours which elapsed before the welcome
"All aboard!" was sounded, and the two trains were under way,--the
accommodation in front, and the express in the rear.

The storm had broken before the trains started, and it increased in such
violence that when Crompton was reached it was raining in torrents. The
wind was like a hurricane, with alternate flashes of lightning which lit
up the darkness, and peals of thunder which seemed to shake the trains
as they stopped to let off their passengers. There were but two, the
young man from the parlor car, and the girl from the accommodation. The
girl was almost drenched to the skin in the downpour before she could
open her cotton umbrella, which was at once turned inside out. Holding
her satchel with one hand and struggling to keep her hat on her head
with the other, she was trying to reach the shelter of the station,
where a faint light was shining, when the violence of the wind and rain
drove her backwards, almost into the arms of a young man hurrying past
her, in a slouched hat and water-proof coat. Thinking him an official,
she seized his arm and said, "Oh, please, sir, tell me is there any one
here from Mrs. Biggs's, or any way to get there?"

Her question was inopportune, for at that moment the stranger's umbrella
met a like fate with her own, and was turned inside out, while hers,
loosened by the opening of her hand, went sailing off into the darkness
and rain. She thought she heard an oath before the stranger replied that
he knew nothing of Mrs. Biggs, and did not think any conveyance was
there at that hour.

"Hallo, Jack! Is that you? and did you ever know such an infernal storm?
Nearly takes one off his feet. My umbrella has gone up; so will yours if
you open it. Didn't see you till I was right on you," was his next
exclamation, as a vivid flash of lightning lit up the platform, and
showed Eloise two young men clasping hands within three feet of her.

Howard Crompton had been to the station at the appointed time, and
learned of the delay of the train in which he expected his friend. Later
a telephone had told him when the belated train would arrive, and the
carriage was again ordered, the coachman grumbling, and the Colonel
swearing to himself at having the horses go out in such a storm. To
Howa