rehead, and then subsided
helplessly in his corner seat, as the lady rose, and, going over to the
window, said to Mysie, as she closed it: "It is a little cold to-night,
after the scorching heat of the daytime, and one is apt to catch cold
very readily in a draught at an open carriage window. There, we'll all
feel more comfortable now, I fancy. It is a little chilly." The poor
worm who had always lived and thrived upon fresh air felt himself
shriveling up in the corner, and growing so small that he might easily
slip through the seam at the hinges of the carriage door.

Mysie merely lay back in her corner without speaking. She had never
traveled much in the train; and this journey, apart from its
eventfulness, was sufficient in itself to stupefy her with its newness
and immensity. She had never before had a longer journey than to the
county town, which cost sixpence; and here she was going to Edinburgh! a
great city, of which she had all the dread of the inexperienced,
unsophisticated country girl. A slight shiver soon began to creep down
her back, and gradually she became cold; but she sat never speaking, and
the other two occupants were so engrossed in thinking out maledictions
against each other, that they had no thoughts to bestow upon her.

The wild, bleak moors rolled past, as the train rushed onward, and the
telegraph poles seemed to scamper along, as if frightened by the noise
of the train. She gazed away to the far horizon, where the sun had left
a faint glow upon the western clouds, and she tried to think of
something that would not betray her nervousness, but her mind was all
chaos and excitement, and strange expectation.

What would be waiting for her at the end of the journey? Suppose Peter
failed to be at the station, what would she do in a strange city? What
if he were ill, and would not come? Or if he was doing this
deliberately, and did not mean to meet her? Thus, torn by anxiety, and
worried almost to death by nameless other fears, she spent the hour-long
journey which seemed like a day, making herself ill, so that she could
scarcely leave the carriage when the train steamed into Princes Street
Station.

"Have you any luggage that I can assist you with?" asked the fresh air
man, as Mysie seemed reluctant to get out, now that she had arrived at
her destination.

"No," she replied simply, forgetting to thank him for his kind
consideration, and rising slowly to her feet, she followed the stream of
pa