remulously to the collector who
came to punch her ticket.

"Quite right, Miss; change at Preston, that's all," replied the man as
he slammed the door.

The porters were thrusting some boxes into the luggage van, and a few
latecomers made a last dash for carriages; then the green flag waved,
the whistle sounded, and the train started with a jerk. Gipsy, hot,
excited, and agitated, drew a long, long breath of relief. She was
actually off! They were speeding fast out of the station, and she was
leaving Greyfield and Briarcroft, and all the painful experiences of the
last few months, entirely behind her. She could hardly believe her good
luck in thus slipping away unobserved. True, she had only a half-crown
and two pennies left after paying her fare, but she supposed that would
be enough to last her until she could go on board a vessel. Surely
chance had favoured her in enabling her to reach the station in the nick
of time to catch the train, and no doubt she would be equally fortunate
when she reached Liverpool. Her fellow passengers were uninteresting,
and she had no desire to talk to anyone and confide her affairs, so she
amused herself with her own thoughts and plans for the future. At
Preston she changed, and bought a bun at the refreshment rooms; her
dinner had been almost untasted, and she was growing hungry now. It
seemed funny to have absolutely no luggage, though in one respect it was
a great convenience not to be obliged to haul about a heavy handbag, or
to tip a porter out of her extremely small capital.

"I feel almost as if I'd been shipwrecked again--in a borrowed dress and
hat, and nothing else to call my own!" she thought with a smile.

It was half-past six before the train arrived at the big Liverpool
terminus--rather late in the day to begin all the numerous enquiries
which Gipsy was determined to make; but, nothing daunted, she set out at
once for Waterloo, to try to find the residence of her old friend
Captain Smith. She was directed by a policeman to take an overhead
electric car, and travelled several miles above what seemed a wilderness
of streets before she reached the suburb in question. Not knowing where
to make a beginning, she decided to go first to a post office, thinking
that there she might be able to gain the information she wanted. She
had somehow imagined Waterloo to be quite a little place, where by
diligent enquiry it would be fairly easy to trace such an important
person as a sea ca