you. Send car to meet us
Reading. Local trains beastly. Both fit as elephants. Love to all.

"JAFFERY."

Such was the telegram. I wired to Southampton acquiescence in his
proposal. It was far more sensible to come direct to Reading than to
make a detour through London. Rooms were got ready. In the one destined
for Liosha, we had already stowed the cargo of trunks which the Great
Swiftness had delivered in the nick of time. The next day I took the car
to Reading and waited for the train.

From the far end of it I saw two familiar figures descend, and a moment
afterwards the station resounded with a familiar roar.

"Hullo! hullo! hullo!"

Jaffery, red-bearded, grinning, perhaps a bit mightier, hairier, redder
than ever, his great hands uplifted, rushed at me and shook me in his
lunatic way, so that train, passengers, porters and Liosha all rocked
and reeled before my eyes. He let me go, and, before I could recover,
Liosha threw her arms round my neck and kissed me. A porter who picked
up my hat restored me to mental equipoise. Then I looked at them, and
anything more splendid in humanity than that simple, happy pair of
gigantic children I have never seen in my life. I, too, felt the
laughter of happiness swell in my heart, for their gladness at the sight
of me was so true, so unaffected, and I wrung their hands and laughed
aloud foolishly. It is good to be loved, especially when you've done
nothing particular to deserve it. And in their primitive way these two
loved me.

"Isn't she fit?" roared Jaffery.

"Magnificent," said I.

She was. The thick tan of exposure to wind and sun gave her a gipsy
swarthiness beneath which glowed the rich colour of health. When I had
parted from her at Havre there had been just a thread of soft increase
in her generous figure; but now all superfluous flesh had hardened down
into muscle, and the superb lines proclaimed her splendour. And there
seemed to be more authority in her radiant face and a new masterfulness
and a quicker intelligence in her brown eyes. I noticed that it was she
who first broke away from the clamour of greeting and gave directions as
to the transport of their "dunnage." Jaffery followed her with the tail
of his eye; then turned to me with a bass chuckle.

"We're a sort of Jaff Chayne and Co., according to her, and she thinks
she's managing director. Ho! ho! ho!" He put his arm round my shoulder
and suddenly grew serious. "How's everybody?"

"Flou